Interior drawers in a wardrobe: why they get their own walls behind the door

Interior drawers are the drawers hidden behind a wardrobe door. The front stays clean, with full doors from top to bottom, while inside you get drawers for underwear, T-shirts, accessories or documents. For such a drawer to work for years, one problem few people notice when buying has to be solved: the door hinges.

Since mid-October 2026, the Téchne configurator builds interior drawers exactly the way our factory does: with their own walls on the hinge side. You see them in 3D, they're included in the price, and they reach you exactly as shown on screen. Here's how it works.

In short

• The interior drawer block gets 18 mm board walls, placed 55 mm from the wardrobe side.
• Single door → one wall, on the hinge side. Double door → two walls, one on each side.
• No door → no walls: the drawer uses the full column width.
• The drawer front sits 30 mm further back than the edge of the side panel, so the door closes freely.
• Drawers go into columns 40–97 cm wide.
• Each drawer is calculated from its real dimensions.

The problem: the hinge reaches into the wardrobe

A hinged door is attached to the wardrobe side with concealed hinges. The part mounted on the side — the hinge arm and plate — takes up a few centimetres inside the carcass, and as the door opens its leaf swings inwards next to the side. A drawer running flush against the side would hit exactly these parts.

The production solution is a spacer wall: an 18 mm panel mounted parallel to the side, 55 mm away from it, over the full height of the drawer block. The drawer runners are fixed to this wall rather than to the side, so the drawer clears the hinges. More on hinges in our soft-close hinges guide.

How many walls your block gets

Interior drawers stacked in the same column form a block. The door covering the block decides the walls:

• Left door (hinges on the left) — one wall on the left.
• Right door (hinges on the right) — one wall on the right.
• Double door — hinges on both sides, so two walls. The same goes for a flap door.
• No door — no hinges, so no walls. The drawer keeps the full column width.

The configurator recalculates automatically. Switch the door from left to right and the wall moves to the other side; switch to a double door and the second wall appears.

How wide the drawer stays

A wall takes 5.5 cm (the gap to the side) plus 1.8 cm (the panel thickness), i.e. 7.3 cm. The usual clearances come off what's left: 3 mm per side for the drawer front and 7 mm per side for the box, for the runners. For a column with a 60 cm opening:

• Single door: 52.7 cm between wall and side → drawer front 52.1 cm, box 51.3 cm.
• Double door: 45.4 cm between the walls → front 44.8 cm, box 44 cm.
• No door: the drawer uses the full column width.

That's why, in a column with interior drawers, a single door leaves wider drawers than a double one. If the column width allows both (an opening of 40–58 cm — see wardrobe door widths), keep this in mind too.

The drawer front, set back by 30 mm

The interior drawer front is aligned with the face of the walls, 30 mm behind the front edge of the side panel. The door closes without touching the drawer. You can see this set-back in the configurator when you open the doors in 3D.

The box and the runners

Behind the front, the drawer box follows the same rules as every Téchne drawer: 18 mm panel sides in one of the standard heights of 110, 150, 180 or 280 mm — the largest that fits the front height, with 20 mm spare at the top and 30 mm at the bottom for the runner. The runner length is chosen from the available depth, between 30 and 55 cm. The differences between runner types are explained in ball-bearing vs concealed runners.

Where they fit

• In columns with an opening of 40–97 cm — practically any wardrobe column except very narrow ones.
• In carcasses deep enough — the drawer needs at least 42 cm of compartment depth.
• Anywhere along the column height: below the hanging rail, at hand height or low, above the plinth.

The price

The walls, fronts and boxes are included automatically in the configurator price. Each drawer is calculated from its real dimensions — front, sides, back and bottom — so a block with several drawers costs exactly the material and hardware it contains. You see the total instantly, like any other element.

Interior drawer or drawer with its own front?

• An interior drawer keeps the front uniform and protects the contents from dust. It takes two steps: open the door, then the drawer.
• A drawer with its own front, on the façade, opens in one move and uses the full column width, but breaks up the front.

Bedroom wardrobes often go for interior drawers; in a hallway or living room, where quick access matters, drawers with fronts. For more organisation ideas read organising the interior by zones and pull-out baskets vs drawers.

Try it in the configurator

Open the wardrobe configurator, select a compartment, add interior drawers from the interior elements, then put a door on the column. Open the doors in 3D and watch the walls appear on the hinge side. Questions? Write to us on the contact page.