A colour chip tells you what a wardrobe door looks like. It does not tell you whether the panel behind that door will keep its edge on a humid coastal site, whether two deliveries from different batches will match under bedroom lighting, or what happens when a hinge fails eighteen months after handover. For solid colour melamine wardrobes, the sample and the written proposal are the two documents that decide whether a joinery package is comparable between suppliers. This article sets out what to ask for, what to write down, and how to score what comes back.

1. Fix the scope before you request anything

Suppliers quote against drawings, not against adjectives. Before samples leave your office, send each quotation the same four things: the room-by-room elevation or layout drawing with heights and depths marked; the door and carcass material and finish you want to be quoted; the internal configuration you expect (hanging rail, drawers, shelves, vanity end, corner unit); and the delivery point, because a villa site and a city apartment floor are not the same handling problem. When one bidder prices a floor-to-ceiling run and another prices a 2.4 m box, the price gap is scope, not competitiveness.

Write your own assumption sheet and attach it to every request. State whether site measurement is included or whether you are supplying dimensions, whether on-site installation is in the price, and which trade carries the making-good around the wardrobe. A proposal that quietly excludes installation is not cheaper — it is a different job.

2. Ask for samples that show the whole build-up

A single decorative face chip is the weakest sample a melamine supplier can send. For each shortlisted bidder, request the same set:

• Face sample, full panel offcut. A cut edge shows the substrate and how the edge banding is applied — colour match, joint line, adhesive line, and whether the banding is flush or visibly proud. Run a fingernail across the joint; a raised seam will catch light and collect dust.
• Door with its actual hardware. The same panel in a hinged door, a sliding door and a drawer front behaves differently. Ask to see the door as built, with handles or the handleless profile, hinges and soft-close fitted.
• Carcass sample, not just the door. Interior panels are usually specified at a thinner thickness than doors. Confirm the colour and thickness of what you will actually see when the doors are open.
• Internal fittings offcut. Shelf edges, drawer box material and any lacquer or metal accents should arrive as physical pieces, not as words in a schedule.
• A large colour panel for flat neutrals. Solid colours — greys, creams, charcoal, white — are the finishes where small chips mislead most often, because surface texture changes how the colour reads. A 300 mm square tells you far more than a 50 mm chip.

Label every sample with the supplier name, the quoted finish reference and the date of receipt. When three bids each call their panel "matte grey", the labels are what let you compare like with like.

3. Judge solid colour finishes in the room, not on the desk

Move the samples to the actual space and look at them three ways: in daylight at the window, under the room's installed lighting at night, and from the standing distance a user will view the wardrobe from. Solid colour surfaces are unforgiving about sheen. A high-sheen door reflects the window and reads lighter; a matte surface absorbs it and can read flatter and darker than the chip suggested.

Then check the family of finishes side by side. Most projects specify more than one melamine surface — wardrobe doors, tall pantry panels, vanity units, media joinery. Where those surfaces sit in one sightline, compare them physically before signing. If your shortlist includes matte finish melamine wardrobes next to textured melamine wardrobes, put the two panels adjacent under the same light: a textured surface and a flat surface in the nominal same colour will not read as the same colour.

Ask one direct question about each colour: is this finish reference produced from one consistent decorative film batch for the whole order, and can it be repeated if a variation or replacement panel is needed later? Record the answer in writing. Reorder mismatch is the most common solid-colour complaint after handover.

4. Put the specification into the proposal, not the email chain

A comparable proposal answers the same questions in the same order. Require every bidder to state, line by line:

• Panel make-up. Substrate and thickness for doors, carcass, back panels and shelves, plus the edge-banding material and thickness on each visible edge.
• Finish reference. The supplier's own code for the colour and sheen, cross-referenced to the physical sample you hold.
• Hardware schedule. Hinge brand and model, slide type and load rating, soft-close provision, hanging-rail and drawer-system specification — with any upgrade priced separately so substitutions are visible.
• Tolerance and interface responsibilities. Who measures on site, who levels the floor or wall packing, and how out-of-square walls are handled. Made-to-measure joinery only works when someone owns the measurement.
• Manufacturing route. Whether your dimensions go into bespoke cutting or whether the bidder intends to fit standard modules to the space. The price difference is usually justified; the silence about it is not.
• Packaging and delivery sequence. Panel identification marks, protective wrapping, container or pallet arrangement, and the delivery window for each room group.

For an overseas manufacturer, add the commercial layer: Incoterms and what they include, who clears customs and pays duty, packaging drawings for verification before production, and the payment release points tied to production milestones. A supplier offering design coordination, custom/OEM work, door-to-door logistics and installation support should name each of those stages in the proposal with a price against it — otherwise you cannot tell which bidder is genuinely offering less scope.

5. Score the samples and the paperwork together

Set up one comparison sheet and fill it in before you talk to anyone again. Score six columns, each out of five:

1. Edge and build quality. Banding joint, flushness, substrate density at the cut, screw and cam hardware visible in the carcass sample.
2. Colour and sheen match on site. How the panel reads in the room against your reference and against adjacent joinery.
3. Specification completeness. Whether every item in section 4 appears in the proposal without you having to ask.
4. Made-to-measure evidence. Shop drawings, dimension confirmation sheets, and how the bidder records your sign-off.
5. After-handover cover. What is covered for hardware failure, panel replacement and finish mismatch, for how long, and who supplies replacements.
6. Delivery and installation reality. Named stages, named responsibilities, and a realistic sequence rather than a single optimistic date.

Two bidders can tie on price and still differ sharply. The one whose edge banding shows a clean joint under daylight, whose proposal names the hinge model, and whose shop drawings arrive before production is authorised will cost you less in variations than the cheaper bid that left those details to be discovered on site.

6. Sign off only when sample and document describe the same wardrobe

Before production starts, hold the approved physical sample next to the approved drawing and confirm that the finish code, panel thickness, edge detail and hardware on paper are the items you actually handled. Keep the sample itself; it is your reference for inspection at delivery and for any replacement panel later.

If you are sourcing joinery as part of a wider fit-out, ask the supplier to show how wardrobe panels sit alongside the other surfaces in the same package — interior fixtures, wall panelling and flooring all compete for the same visual consistency. That coordination is where a one-stop manufacturer earns its place, and it is also the easiest thing to check before you commit.

Send your drawings, your finish references and your assumption sheet to SANTERSON. We work from made-to-measure sizing and return shop drawings, physical samples and an itemised proposal for the wardrobe run you are pricing, so the numbers you compare are genuinely the same job.