My son-in-law has asked me to make one of those closet organizers with drawers and shelves etc. I have seen these things in Home Depot and probably Lowes too. Has anyone made anything like this some other way? I hate to just go the Home Depot way if I have a choice.
TIA.
Dick Snyder
I have done three master bedroom walk-in closets during the past 6-7 years. Our daughter asked us to finish their closet when they built their house. We did most of the interior finish for our son when they built their house a year or two later. After practicing on them, we did all of our closets, including our master when we built our place recently.
It is not brain surgery. Figure out what they need in terms of rod length, including long and short hanging clothes. Then the amount of shelf, drawer and other storage space and put together a plan. We did not use drawers in our 6' x 10' walk-in, but we have close to 35 feet of shelf space including long expanses of open shelves above rods, plus shorter, adjustable shelves in a couple of tower cabinets. The tower cabinets, plus one vertical panel hold it all together. The towers, which include space for six adjustable shelves each, took the most time; but we had everything pretty much built, finished and installed in less than a week.
We spent some time cruising closet planning web sites, stole the ideas we liked and drew it up.
RonB
The Home Depot/Lowes stuff is s little lower quality than you can get elsewhere. My buddies cabinet shop used to do installs for a company that has online order system and good quality stuff. This is how I would do it.
I have done three master bedroom walk-in closets during the past 6-7 years. Our daughter asked us to finish their closet when they built their house. We did most of the interior finish for our son when they built their house a year or two later. After practicing on them, we did all of our closets, including our master when we built our place recently.
It is not brain surgery. Figure out what they need in terms of rod length, including long and short hanging clothes. Then the amount of shelf, drawer and other storage space and put together a plan. We did not use drawers in our 6' x 10' walk-in, but we have close to 35 feet of shelf space including long expanses of open shelves above rods, plus shorter, adjustable shelves in a couple of tower cabinets. The tower cabinets, plus one vertical panel hold it all together. The towers, which include space for six adjustable shelves each, took the most time; but we had everything pretty much built, finished and installed in less than a week.
We spent some time cruising closet planning web sites, stole the ideas we liked and drew it up.
RonB
Ron,
What material did you use? The stuff at Home Depot is melamine over particle board I believe.
Dick
The Home Depot/Lowes stuff is s little lower quality than you can get elsewhere. My buddies cabinet shop used to do installs for a company that has online order system and good quality stuff. This is how I would do it.
On Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:43:14 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
They're just a matter of convenience and organization, so why not go Home Depot fast and easy? Unless of course, one likes to leave their closet doors open and display the contents as a design feature.
I used Oak veneer plywood for the tower cabinets, dividers and smaller adjustable shelves in the towers. These are the items you see with you walk into the closet. The larger, hard attached, shelves were made from 3/4" MDF. I made the shelf supports that were attached to the wall and edge trim, etc from solid 4/4 Oak with a little decorative routing. I also made some simple solid Oak "boards" with decorative edges that were attached to the wall, in areas without shelving units, and screwed large and small hooks into these (there are lots of simple or decorative hooks in the box stores). You can hang a lot of robes, belts, mildly used jeans and stuff from these and keep them off of the floor.
Another thing I did with the kids closets was put shoe shelves beneath the hanging clothes. This was a strip of Oak ply that sits at about a
5 degree slant an inch or two above the floor. It is about 1" narrower than the width of the tower or divider panels. A piece of shallow trim dresses the edge and provides a ridge to keep shoes from sliding off. This simple shelf provides a place to neatly place shoes, and it adds a little design detail to the closet.BTW, if you use wood closet rod, keep your lengths at 4' or less. A rod full of jeans or long dresses will get heavy. Metal rods are a little more expensive but more rigid.
Of course the kind of plywood, or even the use of plywood, depends on the surrounding trim finish. If the house trim is painted, MDF and poplar or similar material will work fine.
RonB
My closet organizer just went to bed. I'll join her shortly.
Very funny! The best joke of 2012 so far.
Easy to do, all our closets have been organized for years.
Material wise, you need three things... 1. plywood or melamine board 2. some hardwood 3. K-V or similar shelf clips...something like this:
You need vertical partitions and shelves, ply or melamine. The partitions need to be banded at least on the "show" side; well, they don't have to be banded but they sure look better if they are. The partitions need to be fastened to the floor and to a crosswise shelf at the top. The shelf can be attached to ledger boards on the wall along both sides and back; the partttion can be attached to it either by a tenon into it or by attaching a piece of hardwood to the shelf, screwing the partition to the hardwood; it will look better if you then attach another piece of hardwood to the shelf but on the opposite side of the partition. Attaching to the floor can be done the same way.
For shelves, drill a series of 1/4" holes in partition sides and use K-V clips. Easy and adjustable.
For hanging rods, I use odds and ends of hardwood (or one piece) gluing them up to one that is 1 1/4" thick by 1 1/2" high by needed length. The top edges of the rod are rounded, the bottom ones eased. In each end of the rod I cut a slot that is 3/4" by 3/4"; that slot fits over the edge of a face frame from an adjoining compartment; if there is no adjoining compartment - just a sheet rock wall - I afix a piece of 3/4 x 3/4 hardwood to the wall. To support the rod, I have drilled a series of 1/4" wall and use a K-V clip in it. The rods are adjustable.
Our current closets (wife's and mine are identical) are 8' deep and 7' wide which gives 16' running feet of storage space. The end has a full length mirror. Each side has three compartments each of which is about 32" wide. The layouts are...
Left side, front to back 2 - tiers of hanging space Shelves & shoes racks full length hanging compartment
Right side, front to back 2 - tiers of hanging space armoire about 60" high, shelves over 3/4 length hanging space, three drawers under
There are "many" closet folks on the web that you can get plans and ideas from.
The problem you will have is deciding what materials to use.
99% of all closet systems use a colored melamine and that can be "very" difficult to find in smaller amounts.You can cheat by using birch plywood but then you are faced with having to finish it.
Lots of cheap closet guys use garden verity white melamine from the home centers. That has all the holes already done and you basically assemble. Not California Closet beautiful but cheap.
You can build them about any way you like. We normally leave 42" between shelves for double hanging and 64" to the floor for long hanging. You will still have room for another shelf above the single hanging. If you want on-the-floor shoe storage below you need to raise these since the clothes will cover the storage. In walk-ins, we build the shelves and bulkheads 16" deep (3 runs from a sheet) with the rods 12" from the walls. This keeps the rod from being right under the face/nosing and you don' have to make the cleats
5" wide. We face everything with 1 1/4" wide hardwood and route. Sometimes we will build shoe shelves or build dressers. You can also make the bottom section of a double hanging unit into a dresser and keep short hanging above. All of our builders like to use chain link top rail for rods. Top rail is a pain to cut but is usually cheaper than most manufactured wood closet rod and will still fit in store bought wooden sockets.Mike
Great details Mike. Thanks!
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