This diy built in closet has done a lot to help this room. I’m not going to sugar coat it this is the room that needs the most help in our house. This is mostly because we took down a wall that was an awkward closet blocking two of the windows. Plus we put up a wall to cut an awkwardly big laundry room in about half. Not sure if that makes any sense. Basically this room is a combination of two spaces with two different kinds of flooring and wall finishes.
The wall thicknesses weren’t even the same between the two spaces which makes it all more interesting. This diy built in closet is actually helping to hide that fact.
It has a long ways to go, but I think getting this built in started and some paint on the walls has made a huge difference. That’s how we do things around here, especially now with having 3 little ones running around. I just keep chipping away, and do the next step I can. The little things add up eventually.
Need for a DIY Built In Closet
Currently we use this room for guests or mainly my in laws who come to visit monthly. I’ve been wanting to fix this space up a bit to make it more inviting and enjoyable to be in. In the next 5 years they will either be moving to our state or there will be a guest house of sorts for them. We plan on taking this room at that point. So with that in mind I like the idea of having a built in closet on either side of the bed.
In the mean time I plan to house my crafting stuff and maybe some home decor items in here. We mainly just need storage at this point. This over 100 year old house does not have much closet wise. The closets that were here were awkward and we have taken a couple of them out because they blocked windows. So 8 feet of storage on two sides of this room is going to make a huge difference.
DIY Built In Closet Game Plan
This is just the one diy built in closet that I have started at this point. I plan on doing the exact same thing on the opposite wall. Eventually one closet will be for me and one will be for my husband. I’m picturing two sets of double doors on top of about 3 or so drawers.
Now that I think about it maybe I should just do two large doors on either side. Then I could find a smaller dresser to slide in to use for those smaller clothing items. I have time to think about it, but I like how much easier that would be. Plus it would still function really well. Luckily I have it so that I could do it that way still if wanted.
For now however with this being the first phase I built the main structure and threw some shelves in. I made it so the shelves will be easy enough to take down. I can add a clothing rod in the top. One of the shelves will stay in between the clothes hanging section and drawers. I made sure to put the bottom shelf at a good place for that purpose.
DIY Built In Closet-Materials
Materials I used:
- (3) 3/4″ sheets of plywood
- (3) 3/4″x 1.5″x8′ wood trim
- (1) 3/4″ x 2.5″ x 8′ wood trim
- Crown molding – this is the next small step to finish it off for now
- Paint
Tools I used:
DIY Built In Closet-How I Built Ours (Phase 1)
- Measure-As with most diy home projects I measured first. I measured the room more specifically not just the area the closets would be in. I wanted to make sure that there would be room for our bed and at least 30″ of walking space between it and the built in closets. I wouldn’t go any smaller than 24″ of walking clearance if you are doing a similar build. That’s a good rule of thumb to follow when figuring out a room layout. I also wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be blocking our windows.
- Draw-I started with a rough floor plan of the room. I just used some graph paper for this. Eventually when I go to add the doors and drawers I will do a more detailed and to scale drawing of the front of the built in. That way I have those numbers to build from but for this phase a rough floor plan was enough to get me by
- Cut divider panels to size- I used a table saw to rip my plywood down to the 19″ I needed them to be based off my floor plan. I measured the height individually for each of my two boards since our house is not exactly square and plumb. Note you are going to want to take about an inch off that measurement so that you can get that board up into place.
- Attach divider panels-I used two pieces of blocking or scrap wood on the wall and two pieces on the ceiling for each divider panel. I found it easier to measure where it needed to be and marking it on the ceiling to line it up with. Then I got the blocking pieces screwed into ceiling based off that mark and screwed the panel into that blocking. From there I used my level to make sure the panel was straight and screwed the blocking into wall and screwed the panel into that blocking. If our flooring was not concrete underneath I probably would have done one or two on the floor too, but It’s really secure with just the ceiling and wall.
- Add shelves-I used the remaining pieces of plywood to make my shelves and some scrap wood I cut down to size to use as the shelf supports. I just screwed the supports right into the dividers and wall. If your shelf is 36-48″ across I would add a shelf support in the back on the wall so the shelf doesn’t bow over time from the weight.
- Add Trim- from here I added the 2.5″ wide trim to the top which was pretty much the perfect size since I bought 8′ wide boards. Then I measured and cut the 1.5″ wide trim down using a miter saw.
- Crown Molding-I still need to purchase and add some crown molding. I need to do this for the whole room really, but I want to finish the ceiling first which is its own project. More on that to come I’m sure
- Fill holes and Paint.
- Enjoy your extra storage!
Next Steps for This Room
In the short term I plan on hanging a curtain rod with some canvas or other material to help hide all the craft things. It will take time before I get doors built for these built ins. I also plan on painting the other paneling in here (before adding the built in cause it was a pain to paint that after the fact). I have some wallpaper I need to cover or take down as well.
After those things I will be building another one of these built ins on the other side of the room like I said. Once that is in I think I will work on the ceiling next. It is very unlevel as you may be able to tell in the photos. So I want to think about how best to hide and make that disappear.
This room could also use a light so I’m going to need to get my husband on board for that. Once that is all done I think all that will be left is the flooring. We are leaning towards carpet with a thick pad underneath. I think it will be cost effective and also help hide the fact that these are two very different surfaces easily enough. Plus this floor gets so cold in the winter I think that carpet will make it a little more bearable.
More DIY to Come…
I hope this was helpful for you, and gave you ideas on how to make your space more functional. As you can see there’s lots more to come and share with you here! If you haven’t seen our living room built in that I finished you can check that out here. We also started working on the laundry room, I share how I built a base for an old cast iron sink I got for FREE. You can read more about how that came to be here. Plus I share my design plan for that laundry space here.