Looking on the Bright Side of a Disaster.

Have you ever thought about a custom closet, but were afraid of how much it would cost?  Well be afraid no more!  Get some graph paper and a pencil.  Take measurements of your closet, both walls & floor and graph it all.  I use small (ten squares to the inch) graph paper so I have each square represent three inches.

Decide how much space (width) you need for slacks, dresses & coats and then for shirts & skirts.  This will tell you how many double and single rodded areas you'll need.  If you love shoes or sweaters you'll want some shelves made just for them too.  We had space for extra bedding too.  Mark your dividers on the floor of your plan for each section. 

Next you'll want to plan and graph your walls so you'll know how many horizontal pieces you'll need. Remember if you have a walk in and will be using walls at right angles to not use that space twice.  I recommend in areas for shoes that you have a couple that are taller for boots even if you don't have any now.  You never know what you'll want in the future.  As for sweaters you'll want to decide how many you wanted stacked on top of each other on each shelf.  Then add a few inches in height for ease of retrieval.  Don't want to be bumping your knuckles now do you?  You'll also need a shelf above each clothes hanging rod.  It's more for support than storage above the lower rod of a double rodded section amd those should only be twelve inches deep so you can easily hang and get your clothes.  Once that's all completed it's time to head to the lumber yard and get your *materials. 

We used MDF because it's nice and smooth.  Although a good grade of plywood would work too.  We trimmed in a triple bead wood trim for a rich finished look.  I used a gel stain and an inexpensive brush for the look of wood grain.  You could always paint ofcourse, but hubby and I prefer stained wood in our home.

Below you'll see pix I took along the way.  The first being some of the cut MDF already stained and ready to be installed. 

Below is hubby's side of the closet.  You can see the shelves between the two hanging sections on his side and the corner shelves (for extra bedding) which are on either side of the shoe shelves.

Next is my side.  Because of stud location it worked out best to have the sweater shelves at the beginning instead of between the hanging sections.  Worked out better anyway since I use mine for delicates stored in fabric covered containers.  You may notice that I have an extra shelf above my double rodded area.  My shirts are shorter than hubby's so I thought it would be nice to have the extra space.  It isn't necessary though.

Below you can see the triple bead solid wood trim in place.  We chose it to match the window and door trim hubby made.  The total cost was under $250.00 dollars.  Very good for a double sided 6 by 12 foot closet.  All and all we are very pleased with our joint effort and the money we saved to use on other projects.   (Please excuse the saw dust.  We weren't finished, but I wanted to get the pictures taken and posted to our website to show to family and friends that all live far out of state.  

*3/4 inch-4x8' sheets of MDF, 3/4 inch trim, Simpson ties (you can see one in the second picture) for attaching vertical pieces to the walls, wood closet rods, holders & brackets, nail gun, screws, gel stain and polyurethane, and semi cheap brushes for stain and all cleaning and gloves that go with staining with oil based stains. 

Ofcourse each closet will take different amounts of the above listed items, but below are the basic measurements.

Vertical pieces between rods and sweater shelves to be cut 14 inches deep by 84 inches high.  For shoe area they'll be 12 inches deep and 84 inches high. Higher if you have taller than 8 ft ceilings.

Horizontal pieces above lower rods will be 12 inches deep and width of the rod length.  Shoe shelves will be 12 inches deep and the width decided on in your plans.   Sweater shelves will be 14 inches deep and width decided on in your plans.

If you look closely at the last picture of trim you'll see we used narrow pieces of MDF as supports.  They were cut three inches by whatever width of shelf they were supporting along the wall and painted to match the walls.  Also three inches by depth of shelf for shelf end supports on either side of the vertical pieces with an angle cut at the front, then stained.

I'll be happy to answer any question, although I think I got everything down.

Have fun!

Becky <><      

June 16, 2007

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