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My dad used to joke that a joiner worked to the nearest mm, a cabinet maker to the nearest cm and a carpenter to the nearest house.
He was a setter out at a large joinery works and specialised in round Windows and spiral staircases which he never tired of telling me are not spiral because the banister needs to twist as it bends.
Ramsaye
@Airhead
Interesting looking at some of the replies here. Some of the job titles in the building industry are a bit archaic and don't get used much any more. My take on it comes from years of development through experience of working with wood/mdf.
A carpenter is usually the guy who puts up studs for walls, door linings, hangs ready made doors (when skilled), fixes architrave/skirtings, bath board etc. and can put a lock in a door. These jobs are often split into first fix skills and second fix skills. Quite often the work will show signs of lack of or inappropriate use of tools to obtain a result. I.e. stud work not square around doors, nails not flush or screws/nails used in the wrong application, doors that don't fit properly and lock body cavities in areas that weaken doors or that are badly formed by blunt instruments. Carpenters working on repetitive jobs like site work will usually have all the tools to hand and achieve a good finish, small jobs in private homes are a bit hit and miss. It's usually someone at the start of their career.
a Joiner can make a door or window of any type from scratch using traditional or modern joining methods and a number of different materials, can make built in furniture usually made partially in a workshop using traditional fixings or modern fixings, kitchen cabinets from scratch in different styles and fitting kitchens with lots of details and a high quality finish. Most of the time a joiner is able to make free standing furniture if required although that is the beginning of Cabinet Making which is where the high end of working with wood begins.
So you often find a decent domestic choice for wardrobes is a tradesman who has avoided first fix carpentry a bit, has a set of sharp chisels and a laser spirit level and doesn't expect to do all the work on site (although that's not the end of the world). Somewhere between Joiner and carpenter. Once you reach full on joiner status you miss the flexibility and preparedness of the workshop and start to tend towards cabinet maker.
Another side of the joinery market is paint finishing. Hand painted or sprayed and there are many options and skill levels involved in that side of furniture, it's also one of the most expensive parts of the process with large but simple wardrobes, largely because paint needs time to dry, is not free and requires minimum 4 coats on bare mdf for an acceptable finish including the time to polish all the cut edges. You can budget around £40 psqm for a simple spray finish. Drawers are also expensive, the runners can cost £20 each for a decent pair, more for touch style and the boxes/fronts for drawers are fiddly to make and fit with proper tolerances.