Building a walk in wardrobe
A Step-By-Step Guide To DIY Walk In Closet
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Are you tired of cramming your expensive dresses into a small and completely inaccessible closet? Do you spend hours every day searching for your favorite pants just to find them rolled up in the corner of an overloaded wardrobe? If yes, then this article is the solution to all your storage problems. A walk-in closet is a must-have for every homeowner looking for a practical, effective and aesthetically pleasing storage unit.
A walk-in wardrobe instantly adds a touch of finesse to your house whilst fulfilling its purpose. In addition to being an effective storage unit, a walk-in closet also provides plenty of privacy. It offers a completely isolated space within your bedroom where you can get dressed peacefully without the fear of someone barging in. A carefully designed wardrobe can do wonders for the interior décor of your bedroom.
With a well-planned walk-in closet, you wouldn’t need to cover the odd nook and crannies of your room with bland showpieces and wall coverings. Due to the versatile and customizable nature of these storage units, there is a huge number of closet designs to choose from. You can find a lot of decorative and creative walk-in closet design ideas, small walk-in closet ideas DIY and also walk-in closet design pictures on the Internet. In this article, we will go through the process of building a walk-in closet along with a personalized DIY closet organizer.
Advantages & Disadvantages Of A Walk-In Closet
PROS
Optimal For Organization
The best part about walk-in closet systems is the versatility it provides. If you are the kind of person who owns a lot of clothes, footwear, and accessories. A walk-in closet can be the answer to all your storage problems. Unlike traditional/regular closets, a walk-in closet provides you with the luxury to spread out your clothes and make them look neatly organized at the same time. Especially when you browse through the great walk-in closet designs for a master bedroom. Now you won’t need to empty the entire closet just to find the one dress you wanted to wear to a date, with a walk-in closet every piece of your clothing will be right in front of you.
Perfect For Privacy
Another upside to a walk-in closet is the privacy it offers. If you are one of those slow dressers who hog up the bedroom while getting ready, then a walk-in closet is the right option for you. It will provide you space and the privacy to get dressed and look your best for the dinner date. A walk-in closet can also be utilized as a safe house to secure your jewelry and other valuable items.
Utilizes Space Efficiently
A walk-in closet maximizes the use of available space in your room. If a custom closet organization system is implemented, these wardrobes can be particularly useful for utilizing the nooks and corners of an unconventionally shaped room.
CONS:
It Can Be Costly
A custom-built walk-in closet can be really expensive because of the added costs of lighting and carpentry. Without the lighting, your wardrobe would not be able to serve its purpose, as you wouldn’t be able to browse through all the clothes you have carefully arranged.
The Excess Space Can Be Overwhelming
Without a proper storage system, a walk-in closet can become more of a curse than a blessing. Due to the added space and the complexity of its design, there are a lot of nooks and corners in a walk-in wardrobe where stuff could go missing. So, if you’re not very organized, be prepared to waste hours just to find that one pair of shoes that was not in the right spot.
Budget
As a homeowner, being aware of how much you can spend on your closet helps speed up the planning process and finalizing the resources you will need for your desired closet design. Without a budget in mind, it can get really difficult to design a practical storage unit.
You might just end up squeezing out important components of the design when the hole in your pocket starts to deepen more than you had expected. In 2020, on average a regular DIY walk-in closet can cost you around $150-$200. We are talking the standard six by six-foot space, with materials included. The cost goes up for any extra shelves, compartments or other sets of furniture that are added.
Space
If you are just starting on renovations, one of the first things to consider is the space that will go into building a custom walk-in wardrobe. Is your room large enough to accommodate a closet for your extra storage needs?
The upside to a custom-built wardrobe is that if the space is planned out and designed properly, you will be able to enjoy a comprehensive storage unit with minimal use of space.
To maximize the use of available space, the walk-in closet should span the entire length of the wall to provide greater storage space. Also, the doors of the closet should open outwards or slide from side to side so that no storage space is wasted inside the closet.
Storage Needs
Make a list of all the things that you will store in the walk-in closet. This will help you plan out the most practical closet design according to your storage needs. A detailed inventory of your apparels will assist in determining what kind of furniture goes inside the closet.
For example, if you want a display for your footwear, you will need a separate compartment for your shoes. If you want to store accessories like watches, belts, and jewellery, then you could design specific shelves in the wardrobe. If you still have enough leftover space, additional sets of furniture like a dressing table or an island counter can also be included.
Step-by-Step Guide On How To DIY Storage Closet
A personalized walk-in closet is every homeowner’s dream. If you are one of those homeowners, then this article is definitely for you. If you have never built a DIY project before, constructing a complete storage unit from the ground up might seem like a very daunting task. But to be honest, creating a DIY closet does not require special carpentry skills.
All you’ve got to do is go to Google and search for different walk-in closet design ideas. Choose the design that is aesthetically pleasing and best fits your storage needs. Now that you know what you want to build, you can start with the building procedure. The following DIY article will hold your hand through the entire process of building your very own DIY closet organizer and wardrobe.
Things You’ll Need:
- 2×4 boards
- 16D nails
- Stud Finder
- 3-inch Screws
- Dowel
- Level
- Framing Square
- L-shaped Brackets
- Circular Saw
- Glue
- Tape measure
- Carpenter’s Pencil and/or Permanent Marker
- Drywall
- Door(s)
- Paint
Step #1: Choosing A Space And Clearing It
The first step would be to choose a space where you want to build your walk-in closet. It’s preferable to select a space that is adjacent to your bedroom and has square or rectangular dimensions. Avoid irregularly shaped rooms. This is because it is trickier to work with awkward angles. Also, the majority of walk-in closet design ideas work best in a square or rectangular setting. Do not select a room with too many windows, because windows reduce wall area.
If you do not have a spare room available, you can body off an alcove in one of your bedrooms or you can build an enclosed area between the walls in one of the larger rooms. Now that you have selected the space to build the closet, the next step would be to declutter the area. Remove everything from the room like carpets, wall pictures, blinds and anything that you can see. Once you’ve cleared the room, use cleaning supplies to clean any dust or dirt that has gathered in your spare room. You can also sanitize the floor by using disinfectants.
Step #2: Measuring The Space Required For Each Item In Your Walk In Closet
Use a measuring tape to measure the dimensions of your room. Write down the length and width of all the walls in the room, do not forget the corners. In order to draw a blueprint for your walk-in closet, you would need to ask yourself a few questions like: Do I want more hanging space or drawers? Do I want shelves for keeping my shoes? Do I want separate compartments for my accessories or can I store them without a specifically designated space?
What should be the length of my hanging space? Do I want a sliding door or a folding door? Before chalking up a layout, keep an estimate of the hanging space you need for each piece of clothing. As a general rule of thumb, allocate 1 inch of hanging space per item. For the heavier winter clothes, keep an additional 1-1.5 inches. The standard length of the hanging space is around 48-50 inches.
According to your answers and measurements, make a rough design of your DIY closet organizer on a piece of paper. You can look up different walk-in closet design ideas on Google. Remember to keep the designs minimalistic and practical. Try breaking down small areas into sections dedicated to specific clothing articles. For example, shirts, tops, pants, jackets, and shoes, etc. This will help the closet space look much more organized.
Grab a great measuring tape right away! Check the latest price and Read More Reviews here
Step #3: Lay The Foundation
Now you will need to lay out a foundation for your closet, starting with the woodwork. Remember to regularly refer to the closet design that you have drawn up. Start by cutting up wooden pieces for the units on each of your wall, the sizes will vary according to the different measurements for each wall.
To avoid wastage of the building materials, make sure that you measure twice and then cut the wooden pieces. To assemble the main drawer units, you can use dowels and glue. Allocating two dowels for the divider on each side. To install the drawer faces, insert all the drawers and the drawer slides first. Use some tape to position the face of the drawer while screwing it from the inside of the drawer. Use wooden buttons to cover up the holes created to fix in the screws.
Step #4: Start Installing Shelves
Now that you are done with the basic setup for the closet. We can start installing the units on the wall. For each unit, you can use steel pipes to make L-shaped brackets for support. Secure each bracket to the wall at a height of about 12 inches from the ground. Attach the same bracket at the top of the unit about 12 inches from the ceiling. To fix the L- brackets to the wall, you can locate the studs and mark the location of each bracket.
Then screw the studs in using 3-inch screws for each unit. After you have installed the main units, you can secure the first section of hangers in between the three main units. You can utilize this section for hanging clothes that you wear regularly. Now, you can insert the drawers to the middle unit and start filling them. Voila, you have planned and perfected your personalized DIY closet organizer. Put all those funky sunglasses, over the top bracelets and the imitation necklaces inside the drawers. Maybe it’s better not to wear them outside but they can definitely rest peacefully within the newly constructed storage unit.
Find some amazing wardrobe shelves here! Check the latest price and Read More Reviews here
Finishing Touches: Install lighting
Now that you’re done with all the handiwork, your closet is finally ready to be lit up. You might want to choose a lighting fixture capable of illuminating the entire room. LED strip lighting is a popular choice for light installation in walk-in closets. It is also a good idea to use bright lights. Try emulating natural light to help see colors in detail.
Find some wonderful lighting for your wardrobe here. Check the latest price and Read More Reviews here
You did it, give yourself a pat on the back. You have finally built your own walk-in closet from scratch. It’s time to celebrate.
How to Build a Walk-In Closet Everyone Will Envy
A walk-in closet is something almost every homeowner dreams of. If you’re new to the DIY game, constructing entire walls may seem like a high-level project, but the fact is that you don’t need any special knowledge of carpentry to DIY your dream walk-in closet. In fact, a couple of enterprising individuals can build a walk-in closet over the course of a few days. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need Before Building the Closet
- 2×4 boards.
- 16D nails.
- Stud Finder.
- Level.
- Framing Square.
- Circular Saw*.
- Tape measure.
- Carpenter’s Pencil and/or Permanent Marker.
*If you don’t own one, you can rent a circular saw at most home improvement stores.
What You’ll Need After Building the Closet
- Drywall.
- Door(s).
- Paint.
- Desired storage options.
Image: ClosetMaid.
As you prepare to build a walk-in closet, it all starts with 3 measurements:
1) Your closet’s height from floor to ceiling.
2) The length of its usable wall space. For walk-in closets, this includes the back and side walls.
3) The depth of the closet.These three measurements are critical, as they will impact the depth of the shelving you can use, the amount of shelving and hardware you’ll need, and what options you’ll be able to add to a basic configuration.
ClosetMaid | How to Design a Closet
Preparing to Build a Walk-In Closet
Once you’ve got your materials in hand, it’s time to lay the initial groundwork for building your own closet.
1) Choose a Location for the Closet
You have two options when deciding where to build your own walk-in closet. If possible, you can frame off an alcove in the desired room. If the room instead has an open layout, you can frame a space along one or two existing walls.
Image: Case Design/Remodeling Indy
If you are doing any demolition to make your closet, ensure none of the walls you’ll be cutting through are load bearing. Damage from cutting through a load-bearing wall is dangerous and expensive to fix! It’s not always easy to tell if a wall is load bearing—if you aren’t 100% sure, get a professional opinion.
Case Design/Remodeling Indy
2) Decide On Your Layout
In order to plan the size and layout of your walk-in closet, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions:
- Will you use a swinging door or folding doors? This is important for determining how much space you need in front of the closet.
- What are you storing in it? Will it be just your clothes/shoes/accessories, or are you planning on storing other items as well?
- What type of storage options (i. e. rods, shelves, hooks, cubbies) do you plan to incorporate?
- Do you plan to include non-storage elements, like a spot to fold or iron clothes?
- Do you have mobility considerations to take into account when spacing things out?
Draw up a rough sketch of what you want your closet to look like, then begin testing mock layouts in the intended space to determine dimensions. An easy way to do this is to use string and tacks to stake out different layout options. When you find a layout you like and think will work within the space, you can then easily measure the strings to get the dimensions.
Image: ClosetMaid
While deciding on your layout, remember these handy tips from ClosetMaid:
A good rule of thumb for calculating hanging space: allot 1 inch per item. But don’t forget that bulky items like seasonal coats need more room, so give them 1.5-2 inches of space each.
To maximize your closet’s full potential, create a double-hang space within your design. By hanging the tops up top and bottoms below, you can double capacity while making outfit matching fun and easy.
Long-hang space for dresses and coats should be placed at an easily-reachable 70 inches from the ground.
ClosetMaid | Calculating Storage Space
3) Check Whether Permits Are Required
You may or may not need a permit to build a closet in an existing space. Contact your city’s building department to make sure of the laws in your area. If you will need to add lighting to your closet space, you or your electrician will almost certainly need an electrical permit.
Image: ClosetMaid
If you’ll be eliminating an existing closet in favor of your brand-new walk-in closet, keep in mind that you can reuse storage elements from the old closet if desired. Use these quick tips from ClosetMaid on how to dismantle a closet system:
1) Remove the pole portion of the system, by either lifting it out or unscrewing any brackets.
2) Remove any planks that have served as shelves by unscrewing them.
3) Remove any support boards by unscrewing them.The steps used to remove a wire storage system are similar, but may require additional tools, such as a pair of pliers and a step ladder. You’ll use the pliers to pull out any pins used to anchor the support brackets to the wall.
ClosetMaid | How to Remove an Existing Closet
Building Your Walk-In Closet
Getting Ready
If your room is carpeted, pull up the carpet, underlay, and tack strips in the space where you plan to build the closet. Roll the carpet back and out of the way. When you’re finished with the project, you’ll cut it to fit around the closet and tack it back down.
Pry the baseboards off of any sections of existing wall that will become part of the closet.
Measure along whatever existing wall you’ll be using and find the studs that are nearest to the dimensions where you’ll want to put each of your new walls into place. You need a stud so that you have something to anchor your new walls to.
Use a 2X4 to draw a straight line from floor to ceiling along those studs. Once they’re constructed, you’ll line your walls up with these lines.
Image Source: HGTV
Constructing Your Walk-In Closet
Cut two 2x4s to the length of the first wall you need to construct. These will be your header and footer plates.
Use a tape measure and a permanent marker to mark stud spacing on both 2X4s. Remember that studs must be spaced “sixteen inches on center,” meaning that the center of each stud is 16 inches from the center of the next.
For as many studs as you will need for the wall, cut 2x4s to the height you want the wall to stand. Add an additional 2studs to your count to serve as end caps.
Nail one stud at each end of the footer plate, and nail the remainder into their slots. Nail the header plate on top.
Repeat the Prep and Construction steps for each wall you’ll build.
You will construct the wall containing your door in basically the same manner as above. On your footer plate, mark the space where the door will go, then mark for studs using the above method, simply skipping over the door space.
Nail in your studs and header as normal. Then create a “door header” by cutting a 2×4 to the width of the door and nailing it across the gap at door height.
Image Source: Remodeling for Geeks
Raising the Walls
Lift your first wall into place, lining it up with the marks you made on the existing wall. Use a level to ensure that it sits straight. Use shims where necessary to make it level.
Secure it to the existing wall by nailing through the end stud into the existing wall every 2 feet.
Anchor it to the floor and ceiling by nailing between studs liberally along both the header and the footer plates.
Repeat this process for all walls.
Adding Structural Support
Wherever you feel you may need extra structural support to hang shelving and other items, cut sections of 2X4 to fit between studs, and nail them between the studs at those locations. When in doubt, go crazy. More studs just mean more options for handing things in the future.
Image: Case Design/Remodeling Indy
To complete your closet, think into every detail to make it feel professional. Carpet is warm and soft first thing in the morning, but hardwood feels elegant and polished. Light the room brightly and mimic natural light as closely as possible to help see colors accurately.
Case Design/Remodeling Indy
Celebrate Your DIY Walk-In Closet
You did it! A brand new DIY walk-in closet is almost yours. Now you just need to hang drywall, install your door, paint the closet as desired, and install whatever shelving and other storage systems you plan to use in your new space. These will likely be projects for a separate weekend, but the bulk of the work is behind you, and a lifetime of enjoying an awesome closet you built yourself lays ahead. Need some additional tips to help you get the job done? Check out our exceedingly comprehensive Guide to DIY Home Improvement!
And once the job is complete, check out our tips from professional organizers on how to organize a walk-in closet.
Instructions on how to make a dressing room with your own hands
A dressing room is initially necessary so that the things that are stored in it do not deteriorate, do not clog with dust, do not fade or cake. How to equip storage for clothes, linen and shoes on your own and with your own resources? Consider in the article.
Storage conditions
As we all know, suits are never machine washed. They are given only to dry cleaning and are periodically cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, brush or steam generator. In all these cases, the particles of fat, sweat and dust that are absorbed into the internal particles of the fibers of the fabric during operation, for the most part remain inside the product.
There is nothing so terrible about it. Natural fabrics, consisting of fine natural fibers, in particular woolen, have a self-cleaning property. Science has delved into the essence of this issue only in our time, and in the near future nanotechnology promises things that will never need to be washed and ironed. An experimental three-piece suit made of nanofibers was created, which was soaked in liquid pig dung and was rumpled into a tight ball, cleaned itself and ironed itself in just an hour. Several thousand hours of highly skilled labor were spent on the creation of this nanosuit.
Surely the case will not end with self-cleaning suits, but it will not be in the near future, but in the future. At the moment, the dressing room is simply obliged to have poor ventilation of natural origin. One air exchange should take place in it no more than for three to four hours. With a more frequent exchange, it is impossible to exclude the introduction of dust with spores and eggs of pests into the air.
Light also occupies not the last place. The larvae of the most common clothes moth do not breed even in weak sunlight. Therefore, in the clothing store, there should be natural lighting.
Drying damp clothes is also important. It is not recommended to dry clothes to “gunpowder” before being sent for storage, because of this, the fabric fibers of the product, like leather fibers, dry out and become more brittle. The thing loses its aesthetic appearance and the service life is reduced.
Wet garments should initially be left to dry in the room until no more moisture can be felt when wrung out. After they are sent to the dressing room or closet, arranged according to the rules.
The following processes take place in the dressing room: particles of dirt in the fibers of the fabric, interacting with residual moisture, completely decompose chemically. In this case, some heat is released, which well provides an intensive exchange of air. After things have been cleaned in this way, the dressing room returns to storage mode for a long time with sluggish air exchange.
If there is not sufficient ventilation in the dressing room, then bacterial decomposition occurs, that is, rotting. Not only dirt rots, but also the fabric of clothing. Things seem to "suffocate". Periodic airing will not fix anything, things cake and decay.
A few more words about clothes. The dressing room should not be poor and boring. The recovery process after each wear is several days, it is for this reason that outfits need to be changed often. Such a famous writer as M.V. Lomonosov, who at one time went through trials from poverty to wealth, determined: “One coarse-wool caftan turns into a rag with holes in a year with the most careful and accurate wear. Five caftans of the same cloth are enough for ten years to keep decorum in clothes. And twenty caftans made of fine and refined cloth, but not so durable, last until the end of life, and they remain as new. Appearing at the court of Catherine II, Lomonosov never caught sidelong glances about his appearance, although quite high demands were put forward in the courtyard for the appearance of the court retinue.
How to assemble a dressing room with your own hands?
What is considered a dressing room? It’s easy for the oligarchs - they allocate entire rooms for their outfits, even if it’s a hangar from under an airplane. And what, we, ordinary people, consider a dressing room? Room, shelving, closet?
The answer is very simple - if you can move it, and at the same time not disassemble it into parts - this is a cabinet. In choosing a closet, a sliding wardrobe is preferable. The gaps between the doors, and especially at the bottom and top, where the rails with wheels, serve as excellent ventilation. If this kind of closet is assembled on a permanently allocated place on the floor, then this is already a dressing room, albeit a small one. This is the best dressing room in the form of a compartment, but if you have a corner dressing room, you need to make hinged doors and take care of natural ventilation. And finally, if the shelves are attached to the wall, then this is a dressing room - a rack. There is also a special type, a dressing room with a hanger that extends, we will discuss this and other types below.
Materials
Any materials are suitable for assembling a dressing room with your own hands. For those who like to craft, a material such as drywall is ideal. However, drywall is quite heavy and brittle for making furniture. This is a material for finishing ceilings, walls or dry screed of a flat floor. If you make a shelf from this raw material, it will sag under its own weight.
Plasterboard furniture is made on a spatial frame of complex design, after the product is assembled, it requires a good, thorough finish. On the one hand, for an almost utility room, the cost and laboriousness of the work is too costly, and the capacity is significantly reduced due to the fact that a solid drywall shelf cannot be made thinner than 5 cm in thickness. But on the other hand, for a dressing room, it is recommended that there are many blind cavities that are sheathed with vapor-permeable materials. They act as a thermal buffer and a buffer that accumulates moisture, which eliminates fluctuations in the microclimate in the room. Which, as we know, neither clothes, nor hats, nor shoes can tolerate.
Moisture, wood and laminate
There is no guarantee that the things we put in the wardrobe are "shaken" in moderation. Too much moisture can cause your clothes to smell musty. The dressing room, made of wood, excludes any possibility of mustiness. It absorbs excess moisture, and then gives it away in the optimal proportion.
Laminate has almost all the properties of wood except porosity. Other benefits of laminate include:
- Low labor input;
- Cheapness of raw materials;
- Material strength;
- Durability.
When the project is ready, any workshop will cut the blanks to the required size and process the PVC saw cuts to match the tone you wish. This is much more economical than buying huge sheets at retail prices. Upon completion of all the necessary procedures, the material is ready to assemble the dressing room with your own hands.
Laminate has its drawbacks, the most important of which is that it does not breathe. As we already know, air exchange is very important for a dressing room. In this case, a rag small bag of silica gel will come to the rescue. It is necessary to place in each section of the dressing room at the rate of twenty grams per kilogram of the weight of things. It is recommended to purchase indicator silica gel, it loses its color when the moisture absorption capacity becomes too low. Restoring the ability to absorb moisture is simple, just heat the silica gel bag in the oven or with a hairdryer. After twenty minutes, the color will reappear, which means that the absorbent is dry and ready to use.
Wardrobe sizes
When choosing the parameters, configuration, design style and finish of the wardrobe, you can only be guided by your own tastes and preferences. It is necessary to observe only some dimensions that are important for the clothes to breathe:
- The height for the compartment in which coats, jackets, suits will be located should be at least 150 centimeters, up to the level of the bar under the trempel. There should be another 10 centimeters from the bar to the top.
- The height of shoe and hat shelves is from 5 to 10 centimeters.
- The height of the coat hanger compartment is from 100 to 110 centimeters.
- Linen shelves must be between 250 and 450 millimeters high.
- It is very easy to determine the height of the shelves, you need to sort things, you can do this even on paper with a list, and divide the height of the dressing room by the number of types of linen. From the value that turned out, it is necessary to subtract the thickness of the material. The formula for calculating the height of the shelves is individual for everyone who decides that he can build a dressing room with his own hands.
The depth of the compartments is usually 45-65 cm. The width is determined as follows:
- For winter coats, jackets, suits, the width is 17-25 cm;
- For shirts and blouses - 12-17cm;
- For unlined raincoats, demi-season items and light outerwear that needs to be stored hanging - 12-17 cm.
- Length for hat and shoe shelves - along the width of the compartment, except if you have block Khrushchev.
- The length of the linen shelves depends on the remaining space in the dressing room. It is indicated when the main compartments for clothing have already been determined. You may have to re-sort, for example, bring your husband’s small knitwear into one place, and the same thing needs to be done with your linen.
Depth is closely related to width. The maximum depth values correspond to the minimum width values, that is, the volume of the compartment for 1 any item of clothing is constant. The height of the compartment does not really matter. For air circulation, a margin of 5 cm above and below is sufficient. You can make even more headroom at the top for your convenience.
Arrangement
For the right humidity and ventilation in the dressing room, one storage is not enough. A wardrobe system is recommended, with at least two components: with open hangers for good “shaking”, and a room or closet that will have an even microclimate so that your things self-repair.
If you have extra space in your room, then a dryer will not hurt you. It is best to equip this kind of device in homes where there is stove heating. Based on fire safety rules, the stove should not be adjacent to the wall. In a house with stove heating, you need to build a dryer in a special place, which in the common people is called a “little box”. The trash can is the perfect place to dry your belongings.
For drying outerwear in the apartments there are special hangers located in the hallways. This is also a kind of wardrobe. A novice master can easily assemble a wardrobe with his own hands without any effort. To do this, you need a laminate and metal pushpins. To make the decorative piping even and neat, the buttons are pricked under a metal corner, on one of the shelves of which holes are drilled with a diameter slightly larger than the pins of the buttons.
The end holes must be on a line that is parallel to the corner flange. You can come up with decorative effects yourself, use intermediate buttons in a zigzag, wave, and the like. Rules for using the template:
- The first batch of buttons is placed by lightly pressing with a finger so that the holes are slightly outlined.
- Using a screwdriver, carefully remove the template together with the buttons. The main thing is accuracy, since the buttons are pressed in slightly, but there are a lot of them, and they all hold together quite strongly.
- All buttons, except for the final one in the batch, are transferred from the template to their places and slowly, with light blows, they are driven in with a hammer.
- The template is fixed in position when the last button from the first portion passes through its first hole, the button is not fully pressed in.
- The next wells are marked, the template is removed again.
- The last button from the first batch and all but the last button from the second batch are taken.
- Then the same procedure is repeated again until the job is finished.
Shelf brackets can be any: figured, forged or cast, to your taste. The shelf can be hung in the same way as for the wardrobe rack, we will talk about this method a little later. A hanger bar will be placed under the shelf, and the clothes will dry better and will not suffocate.
There is a slight nuance in the layout of the wardrobe. Most apartments have storage rooms in the hallways. Equipping a pantry for a wardrobe is not the best idea. The microclimate of this room is completely unsuitable for storing clothes for a long time. It is best to arrange a pantry-dressing room in any living room, and preferably away from the balcony.
Wardrobe construction elements
In order to properly assemble a wardrobe with your own hands, you must follow certain recommendations for its components. These include: shelves and doors. Doors are required to provide good air exchange and allow a small amount of light to pass inside, and one of the requirements for doors is dust tightness. One of the ideal options for doors is the installation of blinds. Shutters, made in the form of blinds, will look good in the interior of the colonial and country style. The gaps above and below must be at least 2 cm in size.
Shelves should be perforated or mesh to ensure ventilation in the wardrobe. There are two exceptions: first, open wardrobes, which are designed to fit into the interior; second, wardrobe-pencil cases, in which the design of the retractable part provides strength. Ventilation in such cases is also provided with thick shelves.
Special wardrobe shelves are sold everywhere. But you don't have to spend money on them. It will be economical and convenient to make them yourself, just take a metal mesh and cut out the shape you need. As a raw material, an ordinary fine mesh network is suitable. It is produced in galvanized, chrome-plated and PVC-coated, in various colors. The metal mesh is very durable, reliable and stainless.
Design
The dressing room is a utility room, it can be subdued and finished to absolutely any interior, so there are a lot of ideas and possibilities for decoration. Assemble a dressing room with your own hands to your taste and preferences!
If you decide to start a renovation or move to a new building, the dressing room is finished at the very last turn, when everything else has already been done. Initially, you only need to allocate the right place for it. Otherwise, it will not be possible to avoid the dominance of a secondary element, and this threatens with bad taste.
Wardrobe in the pantry
If you make a wardrobe in the pantry, then design issues disappear. Then we ask other questions: what is the assembly technology and placement? As for the issue of assembly, the most suitable option is to attach it to the walls with silicone. The advantages of such an attachment are that nothing needs to be drilled, drilled, the complete absence of dust, and most importantly, it holds very firmly. If there is a need to disassemble this kind of mount, then it is enough to heat it with an ordinary hair dryer at full power and pry it with a mounting knife or a sharp screwdriver.
The hanger bar is best placed in homemade holders, as purchased plastic ones are not so reliable and of high quality. Material - plywood from 10 mm thick in the form of a circle, the diameter of which is 10 cm with a U-shaped cut. Shelf holders are made from the same plywood in the form of strips. Inclined shelves can be nailed to the ends of the plywood with small nails. To do this, you need to cut blanks with a margin for bending the side.
For those who like to work with metal rather than wood, we recommend a design called "The Simplest Dressing Room" with two fasteners to the wall. The hat and shoe racks consist of a mesh and are attached with silicone, the hat rack is inclined forward so that the bar is free. Literally in a short period of time, you can build such a dressing room from an old folding bed. If the frames of the legs are covered with a fishing net, then you will get linen shelves.
As for accommodation, there are different storage rooms. In block buildings of old and new designs, “Storage” dressing rooms are not very good, since the closets in them are narrow, or they go into the hallway, because of this they have a bad microclimate. You can still make a dressing room in the pantry, but it will not be very convenient to use. In such houses it will be more convenient to place a wardrobe in the blind end of a narrow room.
Wardrobe room options
One alternative to a dressing room is a wardrobe nook in the bedroom or any other room. This is a very convenient design, for its installation it is not necessary to drill walls, floors, ceilings, purchase various complex parts, such as for a sliding wardrobe, and suffer from difficult installation and adjustment of the system. To install the corner, you do not need to spend a lot of effort, it is enough to fasten the finished parts of the structure with plastic dowels and install the mirror on silicone screws, which can be done in a short period of time. A chest of drawers for such a system can be chosen ready-made, a laminate can be chosen to match it, and vertical bars for coat hangers are not required in such a wardrobe. The dressing room is spacious enough.
There are many options for small walk-in closets. One of them can be conditionally called "bachelor". In essence, this wardrobe is a crimped chiffonier without doors. The capacity of this design is not great, it will include several suits, a coat, a jacket, some light things and underwear. The main advantage of this cabinet is its compactness, you can put it and fit it anywhere.
For people who care about the look of their apartment, a small corner dressing room is perfect. Its appearance fits well with the design, and the content remains invisible. The doors can be made entirely of glass, or a frosted glass pattern can be applied, then the dressing room will become a worthy subject of any interior.
It is not recommended to fence off the corner of the room under the wardrobe. Firstly, in terms of capacity, such a cabinet is one and a half times less than the capacity of a rectangular one. Secondly, in terms of functionality, putting clothes on the shelves is inconvenient, there is not enough space. And thirdly, in terms of economy and labor costs, this is not profitable. Triangles need to be cut, and very wide doors are needed, because without them things will fall out and slide.
An extensive plane that blocks the corner will attract the eye and visually enlarge the room. People with predominant visual perception know that a tightened angle has a negative effect on the psyche.
Corner dressing room is recommended to be made in the form of a parallelepiped with a cut corner. Visually, she does not stick out, but on the contrary, it seems that she is pressed into the wall. However, its capacity will be the same as a triangular dressing room, which is twice the size.
Pencil case
The dressing room-pencil case is a narrow rectangular case with a hanger-frame equipped with shelves that slide out from the side. The pencil case has long been considered a very popular dressing room. But such a wardrobe has its drawbacks; when extended, the hanger jammed and warped. Structures from rail parts with rollers constantly wedged, and hydraulic cylinders and springs became unusable, and their replacement was difficult and expensive.
More recently, this kind of innovative wardrobe product has been developed with a pull-out hanger, which has no drawbacks. In the modernized model of the pencil case, the fully extended hanger slides back with one push of the hand. Convenient shelves with low sides appeared so that accidentally protruding tails of things do not fall under the roller mechanism and interfere with the closing of the pencil case.
Do-it-yourself wardrobe assembly is easy and does not require much labor. First of all, the hanger is assembled, then the rollers are fixed to the side walls of the case, and the correct height is checked. Then the rear and top walls are attached to the sidewall facing the wall, and the remaining side panel is mounted. The final step in assembling the wardrobe is to fasten the side bottom panel.
There are various options for mounting the canisters. In the bedroom niche, for example. Designers in one-room apartments always design the length of bed niches with a margin, which results in a nook-garbage bin. In almost all cases, the owners of such niches put bedside tables or night tables at the head. But this is not the best option. At night, feeling for something with your hand, you can unwittingly knock over and spill water, or drop your glasses on the floor. This problem has a solution, to order a pencil case with a niche at the foot of the bed, and then your wardrobe-pencil case becomes like a “poured in”.
Another type of wardrobe-pencil cases is the “lazy coquette corner”. It is very convenient, as soon as you open your eyes, after a long night, you immediately find yourself in front of a mirror and a dressing table, which is located on the side wall of the pencil case.
Such a design as a pencil case is also perfect for a child's room. The most important thing in setting up a wardrobe is lighting. Children's vision is very easy to spoil. In order for the vision to remain good, it is necessary that the light falls on the left at an angle of 45 degrees. If the tabletop is pushed against the wall, the light will not fall correctly.
With self-assembly of the dressing room with your own hands, you can simplify the work and make this process not so expensive. To do this, you need to abandon the side that is adjacent to the wall, and we attach the rollers that are intended for it directly to the wall. You do not need to align anything, the rollers themselves will fall into place and will not go anywhere. The gap between the wall and the hanger will be a little uneven, but there is nothing wrong with that, because it is not visible.
Dressing room in Khrushchev apartments
It is impossible not to touch on the issue of assembling a dressing room with your own hands in Khrushchev. There is a very good demand for these apartments in brick buildings with a ceiling height of 3m and brick walls.
In the block buildings of the 60s, it is impossible to find a suitable place for a separate room in which to place a wardrobe, due to the fact that everything is so closely spaced. A more or less successful situation occurs only in buildings with a narrow long corridor. The hallway has a good microclimate, which corresponds to the fact that you can assemble a dressing room yourself.
In this case, special clothing accessories are recommended, i.e. trempel with a hook that rotates. Then things are placed not sideways, but on the front side, nothing waves their self-healing. If the shelves for hats and shoes are made inclined, then our mini-dressing room turns out to be up to 0.4-0.5 m thick, which is very compact and does not block the passage.
In Khrushchev houses, there is no problem to find a corner suitable for a wardrobe. Most layouts have closets that are located in favorable locations. In such closets you can make not only a wardrobe, but also a workshop and a rack for cans.
Some projects will require a bit of work, because the location of the closets is not very convenient. In such cases, you need to move the doors to another room, since with the slightest filling in the wardrobe it will be impossible to reach things.
Rack
Rack-dressing room looks quite aesthetically pleasing and stylish if things are arranged neatly and beautifully. A prerequisite should be that the shelves, together with the frame, should be inconspicuous against the background of the contents. It is necessary to design this kind of rack from perforated profiles, the shelves should be made of dark laminate, which is mounted on struts made of metal. Rods that are designed for hangers should be attached to the bottom of the shelves or to the struts.
Metal fittings can be made by hand. For manufacturing, you will need any pieces of a metal rod with a diameter of 5-6 mm. In order to attach the rods, electrically insulating heat-shrinkable tubes will come to the rescue. They are made of polyisopropylene and come in a variety of colors. A similar part is constructed by heating with an ordinary hair dryer to 70-80 degrees. As for the diameter, the unshrinked tube should be twice the diameter of the rod.
There are some peculiarities in the installation of shelves for wardrobe racks. When installed, they not only shrink in diameter, but also slide along the length. Therefore, it is necessary to cover the metal with plastic as follows:
- With a margin on both sides, it is necessary to put the tube on the bottom of the bracket.
- Evenly heating with a hair dryer, we seat in a circular motion, this gives the highest strength to the plastic frame, which later bears the weight of the entire bar with things.
- After our part has cooled, we cut it to the size we need.
- Then we put on the rod a rod with pre-drilled holes that are parallel to each other.
- We put on the upper section of our tube on the bar and move it with effort to the bar.
- Pressing firmly, heat the tube near the bar with a hair dryer.
- After cooling, shrink the remainder and cut the top to size.
It remains to solve the problem of marking on the pipe, amps or volts there. They don't need a dressing room. An excellent solution is an economical option in the form of Chinese production, with a rough surface and uneven thickness. Markings can be removed from them with any detergent or alcohol. The planted tube is very strong, roughness and unevenness are not visible. The bar holds the weight of the load well, but for prevention it is recommended to coat the joints with glue.
Products that were described in this article:
Self-tapping screws
Nails
Mounting profile
Useful articles:
What fasteners are used in construction?
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How to assemble a dressing room with your own hands: step by step instructions
The basic idea behind a DIY walk-in closet is to design and build furniture that will perfectly fit your individual space and needs. This means you can create a dressing room with dimensions, functionality and design that perfectly matches your living space.
Do-it-yourself wardrobe can also help you save money, as you can use cheap materials and tools and avoid costly craftsmen. In addition, building a walk-in closet can give you the pride and satisfaction of having created something useful and beautiful on your own.
Planning: determining the size and functionality of the dressing room
Planning is an important step in creating a wardrobe with your own hands, as it helps to determine the size and functionality of the dressing room.
The size of the dressing room is an important factor to consider when planning. This includes the dimensions of the room where the dressing room will be located, as well as the dimensions of the things you plan to store in it.
The functionality of the dressing room is also an important planning factor. This includes the number of compartments and shelves you need to store your belongings, as well as the availability of additional features such as shoe racks, coat racks, etc.
Your design needs and preferences should also be considered in the planning process. For example, you may prefer a dressing room style that matches the overall style of your home, or you may want to create a dressing room with a more contemporary design. By taking all of these factors into account during the planning process, you will be able to create a dressing room that is perfect for your space and needs.
Blueprints and diagrams
Blueprints and diagrams are important elements in building a do-it-yourself wardrobe as they help you visualize and document your wardrobe plans.
Drawings may include architectural plans and sections that show the location and dimensions of the dressing room in relation to the surrounding space. They may also include construction details such as sizes and types of materials to be used in the project.
The diagrams can also be used to document the wardrobe design, including the location of compartments and shelves, as well as the placement of additional features such as shoe racks and coat racks.
The illustrations can be used to show the design of the dressing room and help you understand how it will look like in the end. This may include 3D renderings, photorealistic renderings, or schematics. The illustrations can also help in choosing the colors and materials to be used in the project.
Drawings, diagrams and illustrations make it possible to plan and create a dressing room with greater accuracy and detail, which will help to avoid mistakes and changes during the construction process. They can also be used to communicate with other professionals such as builders and designers to collaborate on a project.
Walk-in closet assembly instructions may include the following steps:
- Unpacking and inspecting components. Before assembly, unpack all components and inspect them for damage or missing parts.
- Assembly of the main parts of the dressing room. Once all the components and tools have been checked, start by assembling the main parts of the closet, such as walls and shelves. Use the diagrams and drawings that are provided for guidance. Make sure all parts fit and connect correctly.
- Installation of additional elements. After the main parts of the dressing room have been assembled, you can proceed with the installation of additional elements, such as doors, mirrors and showcases. Use the instructions to make sure all items are installed correctly and securely.
- Check and correct. After assembling the dressing room, it is necessary to check all parts and elements for reliability and stability. If necessary, make adjustments and improvements.
- Use and care. Once the dressing room has been successfully assembled and tested, it can be used to store clothes and accessories. Pay attention to the care and maintenance of the dressing room so that it lasts a long time and looks like new.
Furniture purchased from professional manufacturers or dealers can be more readily available and cheaper than furniture you can assemble yourself.