Monday, September 03, 2012

I am having an idea and I'd like your opinion.

My house is small and the two bedrooms have no(!) closets, which is something I intend to remedy hopefully in the next 6 months or so. Here's what I'm thinking, though-- I was going to cover the closet exteriors in beadboard anyway, but it occurred to me that space is at such a premium that wouldn't it be better to do a cabinet-style closet so as to minimize loss of space to the room?  With a built in style cabinet, The only non-usable space would be the actual breadth of the board enclosing the closet space, as opposed to the 5 or so inches that would be lost to 2"x4" and drywall, etc., on a conventional framed-out closet.   Do any of you lovely readers have experience with this sort of thing? 

Also, considering the expense and energy that will be involved on this, would I be better off to order these custom cabinets from a cabinet maker through Home Depot or something?  I just don't want to go to all this trouble and expense and end up with something that looks shoddy and ethnically engineered.  Ethnic engineering is what I'm trying to overcome here.  I did think that if I make the cabinets myself with the help of hapless helper friends, I could buy ready-made doors for cabinets.  And I would have an upper cabinet area above the closet door with glass front doors for storing blankets. 

What do you think?  I've googled cabinet style closet and I'm really not finding anything.  This seems the most sane solution to me, and I'd be eager to hear what anyone has to offer on the subject. 

9 comments:

George said...

Ikea has some well made, large wardrobes that are closet sized. (The PAX series) Not sure how the decor would work with your place, though.

Douglas2 said...

The PAX wardrobe cabinets from Ikea have overlay doors, so from the front all you see is the doors themselves.

We had a bedroom with a DIY built-in. It was ripped out, and we used the Ikea wardrobes to go wall-to-wall on that side of the room with chic piano-gloss doors.

Our low ceilings were just short of the stock height of the cabinets, so I had to saw an inch from the bottom of each cabinet. And I had to pretty much assemble them in place, as there is no tipping up a box to upright when the height of the box equals the height of the room. I also cut-down an extra full-length door to make a matching spacer to fill the inevitable gap between the stock widths and the slightly larger width of my room.

We kitted them out with a few of the efficient storage accessories. available for the line, and I think it just about sold the house for us when we moved.

Any future room needing a closet will be getting the same treatment. The handyman (me) will build a conventional side-wall and soffit, leaving an opening 0.5" larger in each dimension than the desired run of PAX cabinets

Jennifer said...

I think that would work nicely. We have built the cabinets in our kitchen out of MDF. We still need doors and drawers and shelves though.

On a Wing and a Whim said...

I think you're in serious danger of not just slipping, but flopping on your belly and going "Wheeeee!" down the slippery slope that starts with "the toilet tank lid cracked" and ends with $40,000 spent on a bathroom remodel. For a half bath. After seven years of living in a construction project.

The phrase, "considering...would I be better off?" is not just a distant early warning alarm - it means the ICBM is already in the air, and a wise person should be scrambling to make the bomb shelter before the gates crash shut.

I say this having watched / participated / lived in / lived through several remodels. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

Anonymous said...

With the age and style of your home, have you considered using armoires instead of closets? People are practically giving them away on craigslist and then you have no construction and get to take them if you ever sell this home. Just a thought.

AC

Le Conteur said...

I would just be reiterating what others have said - but armoires and IKEA are very good ideas and it might save himself's wrist from all that hammering!

Anonymous said...

The armoires free or cheap sounds like the perfect fix for a full time student and full time worker with other hobbies. You would still have the remodel option later if 4-5 hours sleep is just way to much for you.

Ben

Peter said...

No, you can't have armoires. That would mean you could never come out of the closet!

;-)

Bob said...

http://www.matthewwalterwoodworking.com/trim/built-in-armoire-closed.jpg
http://www.jeffalbro.net/wp-content/photos/Armoire/armoire-side.jpg
Check out image 1 above it is what I think you were describing. Image 2 might be easier.