Building a walk-in closet

As part of the move to the new house, there was still one little project that needed finishing. We decided instead of being regular closets and cabinets that we’d turn a room into a walk-in closet.

About a month ago we started the drawing out plans and schematics of what it might look like. We went through three or four drafts before settling on the current configuration. It’s a mix of using scaffolding bars and shelves. The wood was ordered in a local woodshop, where to cut and finished every plank according to my instructions. The scaffolding bars were ordered online.

Next I needed the fixtures to fixate the shelves to the wall. And plugs and accompanying screws. The fixtures were definitely the most expensive thing of the whole list. Here is a little breakdown of the cost of all required materials.

Still cheaper than Ikea wardrobes of the same size.

I grabbed my tools and went to work. I borrowed a laser from a buddy of mine, which really helped a lot for mounting the initial bottom shelf. I set the laser to the correct height, and mounted the fixtures to the wall, checked if the shelf was still level after mounting and huzzah! The shelf was perfectly level and I had to confidence to keep going. For the shelves that needed to go above it, I figured I would measure the distance between the two and then use my level the align it just right. I’ve had to redo a measure more times than I care to admit, because I left my pencil somewhere out of reach. I really should get me one of this fancy worker’s pants.

I finished putting the shelves against the first wall after an afternoon of work. Which was mostly a lot of measuring, doubting myself, remeasuring and checking every little step of the process before doing anything I couldn’t undo.

I decided to call it quits that day, because the natural light was starting to dim and I was getting tired. The next wall would be a difficult one, I knew, and I didn’t want to risk making mistakes due to exhaustion. I took a day off from work to work on the project again, and about everything that could go wrong that day, did. You just can’t have a DIY project without stuff going wrong, it’s how you deal with those hick-ups that is the real fun part.

I started off by installing the bottom shelf that had to align with the bottom shelf of the other wall. I knew the height, I used the laser to align it perfectly with the already hanging shelf. I installed all the fixtures, they’re all level, great. I lay the shelf on top of the fixtures, lo and behold, it’s about a centimeter higher than the already hanging shelf. Sigh. I figured there wasn’t really anything I could do about it now. I wasn’t going to redo the fixtures, and thought I could fix it be attaching a small wooden plank to the bottom of the lower shelf to lift it up and match the height of the other one.

Next came the top shelf. This one also needed to match the height of the top shelf of the wall I had already installed. I did about the same thing as I did with the bottom shelf. Measured everything out, even more meticulously this time. You guessed it, they didn’t match. This time. The shelf was lower than the other one. That’s two for two on the failed-to-match-the-same-height list. It was at this point that I also realized I forgot to buy some small fixtures to attach both shelves to each other. No way they would match height exactly, you need to attach them to each other. This wasn’t an expensive purchase, a little under €4 for 4 brackets.

Next up was the first scaffolding bar to mount to the wall. It’s a long bar. Just over 2 meters. Handling this by myself was not smart. I measured where all the wall fixtures had to go, set them all level. Attached everything. Then when I took the bar and wanted to attach it to the wall, it didn’t fit. Because of course it didn’t. Honestly, what was I expecting? The day had been frought with mistake after mistake, so why not add another one to the list? I missed the mark by about 2.5 centimeters.

I had it at that point. I left all my stuff in the room, closed the door behind me and went home. I had to come back to this with a fresh head. I asked my buddy if I got borrow his grinding machine, because I would need to cut off a bit of the scaffolding in order to make it fit. He also gave me some advice on how to fix the shelves of varying heights. Instead of using more wood to fix the height difference, he recommended using plastic wedges, which he also had in excess that I could borrow.

My girlfriend called me stubborn to do that part on my own. It’s true, I am. So for the next and last part of the walk-in closet, she came to help me.

We first fixed the shelves of varying heights with the wedges. Which was a fairly easy process. Instant fix. The wedges came in different colours though. Each colour was associated with a thickness. The ones we needed for the top shelf were the yellow ones. And unfortunately that was quite visible when looking at the shelves. Luckily, I remembered I still had some black graffiti paint in a can. So after a quick spray-up¹ outside, I now had the wedges in a colour that would blend in well with the black fixtures of the shelves.

Next up, sawing off 2.5cm of scaffolding. This went extremely smooth. I was glad to have some ear protectors from a previous project lying around, so that hellish scream of grinding metal wouldn’t pierce my ears. Sparks were flying everywhere² - including my bare arms, which was not very smart. But I didn’t singe or burn any hairs so, all’s well that ends well, eh?

With that done, this wall was completely done and looking good! The wall facing the outside of the house was next, which didn’t need a whole lot of work. Just two scaffolding bars. However, when drawing our design, we seemed to not have taken into account the curtain rod. The bars were too long. Again. At least I’ve had some practice sawing one bar already, right? This time, 9cm needed to go off both bars. This time, I wore my sweater, just in case.

Some assembly later, both bars are fixed to the wall, only for the next problem to pop up. We hung a coat hanger from the bar, and it bumped into the bar of the other wall. Sigh. After debating which option is the best, we decided to shorten the long bar by 4.5cm. That way I could move the wall support, so that I could reuse two of the four holes.

By this time, I felt like a real champ with the grinding machine. I’ve used it once before to cut stone and it slipped out of my hands then, so I was a bit apprehensive to use it again. But everything went well, thank all the Gods above. The wall mount got moved and the bar was refitted. Just one more wall with 7 shelves and 2 bars and that would be the end of it.

Not a whole lot went wrong here. Apart from the very bottom shelf where I made an measuring error and had to rehang a fixture everything went smooth. Tubular³!

And there you have it. I just need to fill and repaint some holes and that’s it. This was the last hurdle to move in to the house, and we’re preparing everything for the actual move somewhere this week. Let’s go!