While boxes might serve as a temporary closet, a built-in closet or sturdy wardrobe adds value to your home.
Whether your older home was built without closets or you wish to convert a den, office or dining room to sleeping quarters, adding a bedroom closet makes your home more useful to you and more attractive to buyers when you resell. Design with care to ensure that the closet does not reduce the 70 square feet of floor area required by the International Residential Code for a bedroom or block any doors or windows, causing the room to be downgraded in an appraisal. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Wall-to-Wall Built-in Closet
1. Use the existing walls of the bedroom as walls for the closet. Measure the length and width of the room to ensure that it is large enough that adding a closet will not reduce the usable floor space below 70 square feet or block any doors or windows.
2. Use a stud finder to locate the studs on the ceiling and walls at the end of the room where you intend to build the closet. Pass the stud finder over the wall, and make a pencil mark on the wall or ceiling wherever the stud finder lights up or beeps, depending on which type you have.
3. Face the wall you intend to use as the back wall of the closet. Measure along the ceiling 24 inches from the back wall and six inches from what will eventually be the left wall of the closet, and make a mark. Repeat that mark on the ceiling six inches from what will eventually be the right wall of the closet, 24 inches from the back wall.
4. Hang a plumb bob from each mark. Make a matching mark where the tip of the plumb bob touches the floor.
5. Align a chalk line with the two marks on the ceiling, and snap a chalk line from the right wall to the left wall.
6. Repeat step 5 to snap a chalk line along the marks on the floor, from the right wall to the left wall. Snap additional chalk lines on the left and right walls from the ends of the chalk lines on the floor to the ends of the chalk lines on the ceiling.
7. Mark a point 12 inches from the back wall of the closet, 60 inches from the floor, on the right and left walls of the closet space. Install closet bar supports at each of these points, using manufacturer's directions. Snap the closet bar into the supports.
8. Mark two points on the back wall 62 inches from the floor, at the right and left sides of the closet. Snap a chalk line from wall to wall along these two points.
9. Measure the distance from the right wall of the closet to the left wall. Cut a piece of 1/2-by-2-inch furring strip to that length. Adjust the miter fence of the table saw to a 45-degree angle, place each 2-inch end of the furring strip against the miter fence, and proceed to cut.
10. Have a helper hold the mitered furring strip against the wall, with the mitered ends facing you. Drill 1/8-inch-diameter pilot holes through the furring strip at a 90-degree angle and into the studs in the wall. Switch to a countersink bit, and drill into each pilot hole until the bit carves a well wide enough and deep enough to allow the head of the screw to rest flush with the surface of the wood. Secure the furring strip to the wall using 1/4-inch-diameter, 1.5-inch-long wood screws.
11. Cut 24-inch-long furring strips for each side wall. Adjust the miter fence of the table saw to a 45-degree angle, place one 2-inch end of each furring strip against the miter fence, and proceed to cut.
12. Install the side strips using the method described in Step 10. Match the mitered ends of the side strips with the mitered ends of the back strip. Combined, these create the shelf support.
13. Cut a shelf from 1/2-inch-thick plywood. Make the shelf 24 inches wide and the same length as the distance between the right and left walls of the closet. Sand, paint and seal the shelf as desired. Slide the shelf onto the shelf supports.
14. Measure along the chalk line on the ceiling from right wall to left wall. Take the track from the sliding closet door kit, and cut it 1/8-inch shorter than the length of the chalk line to ensure a good fit. Align the screw holes in the track with the chalk line on the ceiling. Attach the track to the ceiling at each screw hole that lines up with a ceiling stud, using the screws supplied by the manufacturer.
15. Hang the doors from the ceiling track according to manufacturer's instructions.
16. Install the door guide, using the screws and instructions supplied by the manufacturer.
Wardrobe Closet
17.Purchase a wardrobe with interior dimensions at least 24 inches deep, 36 inches wide and 64 inches tall.
18. Position the wardrobe against a wall where it will not impede access to the room or any window. The doors should also have enough clearance so that they will not hit the bed or any other pieces of furniture when opening and closing.
19. Use a stud finder to locate the studs on that wall. Pass the stud finder over the wall, and make a pencil mark on the wall wherever the stud finder lights up or beeps, depending on which type you have.
20. Install a 1/2-inch by 2-inch furring strip along that wall, across at least three wall studs, so that the top of the wardrobe hits the center line of the strip. Drill 1/8-inch-diameter pilot holes through the furring strip at a 90-degree angle and into the studs in the wall. Switch to a countersink bit, and drill into each pilot hole until the bit carves a well wide enough and deep enough to allow the head of the screw to rest flush with the surface of the wood. Secure the furring strip to the wall using 1/4-inch-diameter, 1.5-inch-long wood screws.
21. Attach an L-shaped shelf support two inches from the left and right sides of the wardrobe, along the back edge. An L-shaped shelf support is a piece of metal about 1/2-inch wide, with two legs that are usually of equal length, used to provide stability between two surfaces at right angles to one another. One leg of the support should point toward you, and the other leg should point toward the ceiling. Drill pilot holes through the holes in the bracket, and secure the brackets to the wardrobe and the wall with whatever screws came with the supports.
22. Secure the shelf brackets to the furring strip by screwing 1.5-inch-long wood screws through the furring strip and into the wall studs. If the studs are not in the correct positions on the wardrobe to attach the L-brackets to the wall, use molly bolts, which have wings that spread out after you insert them through the wall.
Tags: furring strip, inches from, chalk line, stud finder, back wall, left wall
