Step into California Wardrobes at Residium and the first thing you meet is a wall of four wardrobe doors, lit and standing at full height. Most wardrobe displays sell the inside of the wardrobe. This one starts with the front, which is the part you look at every day, and the part that has to agree with the rest of your house.

California Wardrobes manufactures 99% of the doors it supplies, at its Henderson factory at 14b Corban Avenue, and is 100% New Zealand owned, designed, manufactured and installed. Board finishes use a sustainably produced New Zealand-made MDF substrate laminated with premium melamine sheets, and hardware comes from Blum, Häfele, Hettich and Enko. All work carries a 10 year warranty, which may be affected if the product is not installed by an authorised California Wardrobes installer. Allow 3 to 6 weeks from deposit to installation.

That matters most in an older home. A profile that looks right in a photograph can sit badly against a villa architrave, and bead moulding and batten spacing are close to impossible to judge from a website thumbnail. The four doors are unlabelled, so read them as profiles rather than product names: a slim single panel, a two-panel door with bead moulding, a bungalow profile with one upper panel over four vertical battens, and a multi-panel colonial. Seen at full size and side by side, the differences are obvious in a way they never are on a screen.

Behind the door wall, three complete wardrobe interiors cover three different sorts of house. A painted traditional unit carries panelled doors, dark bronze knobs, open shelving, hanging space and a drop-down flap on soft-close hinges. A light oak-look open system runs cubbies with fabric boxes and woven baskets, a hanging rail, a drawer bank, an angled shoe rack and a mirror strip. A gloss white contemporary unit uses recessed bar pulls, an oak-look vertical divider, lift-up flap doors on the top box and a mirror. Traditional, natural and contemporary, in one bay, so you can work out which era your house belongs to.

Showroom 113 isn’t staffed, so a little preparation makes the visit worth far more. California Wardrobes asks visitors to bring rough measurements of the space and of any door frame openings, and that’s what turns a browse into an estimate. Their designers will also meet you at the stand by arrangement, and a free design consultation, usually in your own home, is the normal next step.

Two things are worth knowing before you come. Allow 600mm from the back wall to the inside of the doors for an adult wardrobe, though smaller spaces can be worked with. And if you’re building, talk to them at planning stage, while a door or wall position can still be moved cheaply – sliding door tracks have to be laid before the carpet goes down.

You can explore California Wardrobes 7 days a week at Residium. Showroom 113 sits at the back of Section B. No appointment necessary, simply drop in and explore at your convenience, and when you’re ready to talk to a designer, we’ll connect you with the team.

SEE THE DOOR WALL

At a glance

• 99% of the doors California Wardrobes supplies are made at its own Henderson factory, so odd widths and heights are routine rather than special.
• Flat, bi-fold, sliding and hinged doors, plus aluminium framed mirror sliders, in primed, lacquer or melamine finish.
• Villa and bungalow door profiles for older character homes, shown at full size on the door wall.
• Board finishes on a sustainably produced New Zealand-made MDF substrate laminated with premium melamine sheets.
• Hardware from Blum, Häfele, Hettich and Enko.
• 10 year warranty on all work, which may be affected if you install it yourself rather than using an authorised installer.
• 3 to 6 weeks from deposit to installation.
• 600mm from the back wall to the inside of the doors is the ideal depth for an adult wardrobe, and scriber panels handle walls that are not straight and plumb.