A bedroom fit-out with thirty identical wardrobes fails in two ways. Either the carcasses arrive ready and the front panels arrive wrong, or every panel arrives correct and none of them sit plumb against the same wall. Both failures come from the same place: the buyer compared prices between suppliers who were quoting different things.

If you are vetting us for a run of cherry solid wood wardrobes, here is exactly what a project buyer should check on a quotation — and what a supplier should be willing to put in writing before you commit to a production slot.

1. What is actually solid, and what is not

Ask, in these words: which components are solid timber, which are engineered board with a solid edge, and which are veneered? A door can be solid timber and still be a poor buy if the rails and stiles are a different species to the field panel. A veneered carcass can be the right call in a heated, air-conditioned hotel bedroom, where movement is the enemy.

Then ask how each species is described on the packing list. Species should be named, not left as a trade name, and the same term should appear on the quotation, the drawing and the crate label. A supplier who is casual about naming is usually casual about sourcing.

2. How grain and colour are matched across a run

This is where a warm-toned, figured timber separates factories from workshops. Put the question directly: are doors for one room cut from consecutive boards, and are panels for a whole floor selected from the same batch? Ask what is excluded — sapwood, heartwood, mineral streaks — and ask what happens if a replacement panel is needed a year later.

Get the answer in the form of a written grade rule and a reference board, not a phrase like "natural variation". Variation is expected in cherry; uncontrolled variation is what a client points at on day one.

3. Whether the supplier builds the interior or just the doors

A wardrobe is judged every day on the inside. Compare quotations on the interior specification line by line:

• Carcass board type and finish, including the visible edges inside a sliding-door unit.
• Hanging rail, shelf depths, drawer count and runner specification, soft-close included or optional.
• Integrated lighting: sensor, transformer location, and whether the driver is replaceable without removing the cabinet.
• Mirror, tray, shoe shelf and pull-out provisions, priced or excluded.

If your project also needs a modular combination layout in the bedrooms and open walk-in runs in the suites, one supplier specifying all of it keeps the interior specification consistent across unit types. Splitting it across two factories produces two different interiors under one client's roof.

4. Whether made-to-measure means measured, or just resized

Ask which of the two you are buying. A resized standard unit is a catalogue item in a different height. A measured unit accounts for out-of-square walls, skirting, ceiling lines and the door swing that has to clear the bed head.

A serious supplier will ask for your setting-out drawings and will return a dimensioned elevation for sign-off before production. Our custom and OEM service covers bespoke dimensions, finishes and layouts, including non-standard fronts and matched colours outside the standard palette, and we ask for the drawings first, not the order.

5. What the delivery actually contains

Compare the packing list, not just the price per unit. Are units assembled or flat-packed, are doors pre-hung and pre-hinged, are ironmongery and hardware packed per room and labelled to the room number on your drawings, and is there an installation sheet with the shipment? A labelled, room-matched crate list is the difference between an installer who starts on arrival and one who spends the first two days sorting cartons.

Then compare freight terms. Port or door, sea or air, who prepares customs documents, and what the landed cost is. We take joinery from production through to door-to-door delivery as one package, so the joinery, the matching veneered cabinetry and the bedroom loose furniture travel on one programme rather than three.

6. What happens after handover

Ask three questions and note the answers: what is covered after installation, who supplies replacement panels and hinges a year later, and who attends on site for the snag list. A supplier who answers in writing, with named parts and a stated process, is planning for the maintenance phase. A supplier who answers with reassurance is not.

The comparison sheet to send us

• Room-by-room wardrobe schedule: widths, heights, door type and count.
• Interior layout per unit, with drawer and hanging requirements.
• Finish references, plus the two surfaces the joinery sits against.
• Setting-out drawings or site survey, including wall and ceiling conditions.
• Site-ready date, delivery address and access restrictions.

Send that to two or three suppliers and the quotations come back comparable. Send only a room count and you will get three prices for three different wardrobes, and the cheapest will be the one you pay for twice.