How far apart should wardrobe shelves be?

For folded jumpers and T-shirts, 300 to 350 mm from the top of one shelf to the top of the next. For shoes, 150 to 200 mm. Those are pitches, so they already include the thickness of the board; the clear opening is 18 mm less.

How wide can an 18 mm shelf span?

About 900 mm loaded with folded clothes. Past that a faced chipboard or MDF shelf takes a visible set within a year or two. If a column has to be wider, add a vertical divider, double the board up at the front edge, or accept that the shelf will bow.

How deep are the shelves in the planner?

The board runs from the face of the back panel and stops 20 mm short of the front of the carcass, so a 600 mm deep unit with a 4 mm back gets a 576 mm shelf. That front setback keeps a sleeve from catching the shelf edge and stops a folded stack from being knocked off as you walk past.

Wardrobe shelf depth and spacing

Shelves are the cheapest storage in a wardrobe and the easiest to get wrong. Two questions decide whether they work: how far apart to space them, and how deep and how wide each board should be. Both have short answers, and both depend on what is going on the shelf rather than on any general rule about wardrobes.

Pitch, not gap

Quote shelf spacing as a pitch — top of one board to top of the next — rather than as a clear gap. The pitch is what you set out on the side panel, it is what the planner works in, and it saves you from forgetting the 18 mm (23/32 in) the board itself takes up. A 300 mm (11 13/16 in) pitch gives a 282 mm (11 1/8 in) clear opening.

Folded clothes: 300–350 mm

A stack of folded T-shirts is comfortable at a 300 mm (11 13/16 in) pitch; jumpers, sweatshirts and anything bulky want 350 mm (13 3/4 in). Going tighter than 300 mm means you can only put four or five items in a stack before the top one catches on the shelf above. Going looser than 350 mm is not free either — the stack gets tall enough that pulling something from the middle topples it.

If a column is for folded clothes only, an even pitch throughout looks better and lets you move the load around later. Mix pitches only where you know what lives there.

Shoes: 150–200 mm, or tilt them

Flat shoes and trainers fit a 150 mm (5 7/8 in) pitch; boots, heels and men's shoes want 200 mm (7 7/8 in). Tilting the shelf 15° towards the front changes the arithmetic: the shoe presents its side rather than its height, so 150 mm (5 7/8 in) is enough for almost anything, and you can see the whole shoe from the doorway instead of just its toe. Walk-in Planner draws tilted shoe shelves at 15° and holds them to a 150 mm minimum pitch. A tilted shelf needs something along its front edge or the shoes slide off, so the planner adds a 40 mm (1 9/16 in) strip of panel — the lip — and lists it in the cut list right after the shelves.

Depth: 20 mm short of the front

A shelf runs from the face of the back panel forward, and stops 20 mm (25/32 in) short of the front of the carcass. So the board is unit depth, less the back panel, less that setback: in a 600 mm (23 5/8 in) unit with a 4 mm (5/32 in) back, a 576 mm (22 11/16 in) shelf. The setback at the front earns its keep twice — a sleeve or a cuff does not catch the shelf edge as you reach in, and the front item in a stack is not nudged off as you squeeze past in the aisle.

There is no reason to go deeper than the unit. A shelf deeper than about 600 mm (23 5/8 in) simply hides whatever is at the back.

Span: 900 mm for an 18 mm board

The width limit is set by sag, not by strength — the shelf will not break, it will just curve. Loaded with folded clothes, an 18 mm (23/32 in) faced chipboard or MDF shelf holds a straight line to about 900 mm (35 7/16 in). That makes a 900 mm column the practical maximum for a shelf with no divider under it. Beyond that, add a vertical divider in the middle of the column, glue a strip along the front edge to stiffen it, or step up to a thicker board — the planner will happily draw a wider column, it just will not hold the shelf straight for you.

Numbers to set out from

What sits on the shelf	Pitch	Note
Folded T-shirts, shirts	300 mm (11 13/16 in)	Four or five items per stack
Jumpers, sweatshirts, bulky knits	350 mm (13 3/4 in)	Also suits handbags standing up
Flat shoes and trainers	150 mm (5 7/8 in)	Minimum pitch for a tilted shoe shelf too
Boots, heels, men's shoes	200 mm (7 7/8 in)	Or tilt the shelf 15° and keep 150 mm
Shelf depth	Unit depth − back panel − 20 mm (25/32 in) setback	576 mm (22 11/16 in) in a 600 mm unit with a 4 mm back
Maximum span	900 mm (35 7/16 in)	For 18 mm board carrying folded clothes; wider needs a divider

In the planner a shelves zone is set by the number of compartments rather than the number of boards, so a zone with five compartments gets four shelves and the pitch falls out of the zone height. Elevations dimension every bay, which is the quickest way to see whether your shoe shelves really did come out at 150 mm.

Try it in the planner