Home Improvement: Master Bedroom Closet

[stoney]

This whole owning a home thing is pretty sweet until stuff starts breaking. For example, my garbage disposal stopped working today. That is going to make for a fun repair, but the sink still works.

Back in October, the closet shelving in the master bedroom decided to detach itself from the wall. It was nothing special, just your standard 12" wide board with a dowel bar to hang clothes from. Wifey and I decided that we should upgrade the closet, because there is no point to replace it cheaply, if we will eventually want something with more storage space. We looked at getting a custom closet put in, but I'm too cheap and felt I could do something nicer myself. While we were researching what to put in, I came across this link: http://diydiva.net/2011/05/when-your...-living-space/ I really liked the look, as did Wifey, so I set to designing the closet.

Once we got all of our clothes out of the closet, the damage was pretty bad. When the shelf collapsed, it gouged the wall really bad. The shelf also had a very poor silicon job against the back edge, which was going to need additional repair work. I had to take the two shelves off the back wall too, which conveniently had large holes behind the back boards. The paint and orange-peel texture were also done over the shelving, so large areas of the wall had to be fixed.

Setting up the layout for the closet was another task though. Using galvanized steel for the framing meant that I needed to map out my goal before I could even start. Initially, I had planned on have 12" wide shelves immediately inside the door, two hanging bars over one another, a full height hanging bar, shelves in the corner to match the first set, then another double hanging bar. Upon acquiring the necessary piping to start my mock-up, I came into a serious problem - counter-threading. More appropriately, the lack thereof. This ended that plan.

After trying a few other options, I decided to have shelves the full length of the closet to half height with hanging racks above then. I was still planning on making a turn with the shelving at the back wall, then stopping mid-wall for a full hanging rack space. Seeing how this was a much better plan, I acquired the remaining piping I needed and decided on Poplar wood for the shelving. The light color would help keep the room bright, and Wifey liked the wood color.

The open problem with Poplar boards though, is that you can't get them in off sizes. The spacing on the shelving meant that I needed 14" wide, 8' long boards. Nobody makes boards in that size. I did the next most reasonable thing though. Instead of changing the design, I decided that I could use a planer and just join a few boards to get them 14". Just a heads up to those thinking of doing this... It is WAY harder than it sounds. I spent 4 weeks (weekend and evening work) pressing boards together to make full them full length shelves, then sanding them smooth. (Side-note: don't do sanding in your garage if you can help it. I have sawdust everywhere.)

While boards were setting, I cleaned up the walls in the closet. I removed the extra silicone, patched all of the holes, sprayed everything with orange-peel texture, and painted it "arctic white". That also took a shockingly large amount of time, given the number of trips to Home Depot I was taking.

Piece by piece this week, I have been putting the shelf together in the closet. It's a bitch because it needs to be built from the top down, due to the threading of the pipes (see lack of counter-thread). Wife helped me with the last parts of the main shelf yesterday, and this is the end result:



It doesn't look large, but it's an 8' x 4' closet. The shelves are 14" deep, spaced 6", 6", 12", 12". Plenty of shoe space on the lower shelves, and room for the clothes she folds in the other shelves. There are three sections, the first two are the same width.

I added another bar across the top to connect to the opposite wall for additional hanging space. Wifey liked the space she got from this, so I didn't have to build out the connecting shelves along the back wall. If she wants more shelves, I will just add more shelves in the back left corner. I get the section closest to the door. All of my clothes hanging and folded up will fit in that section. I am to be left one drawer for socks and such. This leaves Wifey with three full sized dressers and the rest of the closet... And the scary part is that she pared down by easily 30% when we moved to CO.

Either way, we were looking at $1500-2000 for a fancy custom built closet. This only cost us $700 and should last forever. I know I should have taken more pictures, but it was not high on my priority list while tearing down and building. But yeah, that's been my project for the last 2.5 months.

TL;DR: Closet shelving collapsed, built a new closet.

[dan-o]

Nice.
While you 'spent' a lot of your own time the closet systems tend to be total crap for the price.

FYI, a real lumberyard (not a big box) can get you any species/dimension wood you want.

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Did Stoney just come out of the closet?

[dan-o]

DIYDiva says 'yes'

[UNHrider]

Stoney, make sure you hit the reset button on the bottom of your garbage disposal before calling someone out to fix it.

[stoney]

Nice.
While you 'spent' a lot of your own time the closet systems tend to be total crap for the price.

FYI, a real lumberyard (not a big box) can get you any species/dimension wood you want.

I tried a few large yards, but for my scale it was prohibitively expensive. The wood was $300 as is, it would have been over $500. I have more time than money, so I'd prefer that option.

Did Stoney just come out of the closet?

You only wish.

[Nick]

that looks GREAT. nice work.

[stoney]

Stoney, make sure you hit the reset button on the bottom of your garbage disposal before calling someone out to fix it.

Good to know. The guy at Home Depot told me to try spinning the allen at the bottom to make sure the blade still spins. The power actually comes on and the motor works. The blade is not spinning though.

[UNHrider]

ah different problem then. between the reset button and allen key fixes, i've exhausted my knowledge of garbage disposals. good luck with yours.

[stoney]

ah different problem then. between the reset button and allen key fixes, i've exhausted my knowledge of garbage disposals. good luck with yours.

I've acknowledged that I am likely buying a new one.

[SkaredShtles]

This whole owning a home thing is pretty sweet until stuff starts breaking.

Inconceivable!

[SkaredShtles]

I've acknowledged that I am likely buying a new one.

If it's a "newer" type disposal they are really easy to change.

If it's an "older" type disposal... good luck finding a new sink.

[stoney]

If it's a "newer" type disposal they are really easy to change.

If it's an "older" type disposal... good luck finding a new sink.

Newer type, from what I can tell.

[SkaredShtles]

Newer type, from what I can tell.

That's good news. Old one should just "unbuckle" from the flange... buckle the new one in... off to the races.

[Pesqueeb]

If it's a "newer" type disposal they are really easy to change.

When ours took a dump, I had it removed and replaced in about an hour. Easy-peasy. It took longer to drive back and forth to Home Repot and pick one out.