Open walk in wardrobes read beautifully in a villa or apartment bedroom: clothes on display, easy access in the morning, and a dressing area that feels part of the room rather than a box bolted to the wall. The difficulty for Australian buyers is that these are made-to-measure joinery items, usually produced offshore and shipped in. What you confirm before the order is placed decides whether the installation runs smoothly or turns into an expensive site problem.

Start with what the wardrobe actually is

SANTERSON lists this category under its built-in furniture range. Each item in the Open Walk in Wardrobes range is specified per project: sizing is made to measure, materials and finishes are selected by the buyer, and the internal layout follows the space rather than a fixed catalogue module. That is a genuine advantage for irregular room shapes, but it removes the safety net of a standard product you can inspect before purchase. Treat the specification, not the brochure photograph, as the thing you are buying.

Verify the room before you verify the wardrobe

An open wardrobe exposes everything, so the surrounding fabric has to be resolved first. Three items are worth settling in writing on your drawings:

• Floor flatness and skirting. Frameless and low-plinth designs show gaps against the wall and floor. Ask your builder to state how the skirting is handled at the wardrobe line and whether the floor is levelled to joinery tolerance.
• Lighting. Internal lighting needs a driver location, a switched circuit, and a maintenance access route. Confirm who provides the lighting, who runs the cable, and who signs off the connection.
• Structure. Wall-mounted and full-height systems rely on the substrate. Note on the drawing which walls are load-bearing or framed, and who supplies any blocking or backing.

These points belong to the Australian side of the job. A supplier can build to a drawing; they cannot fix what the drawing does not show.

Pin down the specification, not the appearance

Open storage invites assumptions about what is included. For each run, list the hanging zones, shelf heights, drawer stacks, and any island or bench element, and ask for the board material, edge treatment and hardware being quoted. Where a finish is described by name only, request a physical sample before sign-off: colour, sheen and grain read very differently in a large panel than on a small chip, and Australian light is not the light the showroom was lit for. The same applies to doors and end panels in the Minimalist Open Wardrobes style, where a handleless look depends on detail dimensions that only become visible on the shop drawings.

Check the drawing pack and the tolerances

Request dimensioned shop drawings showing overall height, width and depth, module breaks, shelf spans, and how the unit meets the ceiling and floor. Confirm which dimensions are fixed and which are adjusted on site, and who carries the cost if an as-built measurement differs. For a project with several bedrooms, ask that each room is drawn and numbered separately; identical-looking wardrobes in different rooms rarely fit the same way.

Sort out logistics, sequencing and site access

SANTERSON describes door-to-door delivery alongside production, with packaging, container loading and shipping documentation arranged by the supplier. For an Australian purchase, confirm the delivery terms you are being quoted, which party handles customs clearance and duties, and where the goods land - port, builder's storage or the site. Then work backwards from your programme: joinery should not arrive before the wet trades, flooring and paint in that room are finished, and the packaging must get through the front door, lift or stairwell intact.

Agree installation and the snag list in advance

Establish who installs the wardrobe and who supervises it, whether a site visit or on-site guidance forms part of the scope, and how defects and replacement parts are handled after handover. Confirm what is covered, for how long, and what is excluded. A short written acceptance list - doors aligned, shelves level, finishes free of transit damage, lighting working - gives both sides the same definition of done.

Look at real projects, then ask for the same detail

SANTERSON's project record includes villas and housing work in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Willoughby, which is a useful way to see how the range performs in Australian conditions and detailing. Ask specifically what was involved in the wardrobes and built-in storage on a project comparable to yours - room type, constraints, and how installation was handled - rather than accepting photographs as evidence of scope.

If you want a full-room package, the same verification discipline applies across custom minimalist bedroom wardrobes and the other joinery in the build, and consolidating them with one supplier simplifies coordination but does not ｒｅｐｌａｃｅ the checks above.

Before you commit, ask for four things in writing: dimensioned shop drawings, a physical finish sample, a stated delivery and installation scope, and a defined snag and replacement process. If all four are clear, an open walk in wardrobe is a low-risk buy. If any is vague, resolve it while it is still only a drawing.