We finally have doors on our closets and rods that don't bend almost all the way to the floor. This has been one of the longest avoided projects in the house. For a good reason though, I just couldn't decide on an affordable closet door design that would not close in the space. I finally decided on some simple slatted steel framed ones. This is the dreadful "before" picture. See those wooden rods? They seem a little wore out.. To be fair they were under alot of stress (Roxy likes her clothes). I made the frames out of 3/4" x 1/8" angle iron, welded at the mitered corners. The slats are fir utility boards from the lumber yard. The boards cost me $2.14 a piece, which were 10 feet long. I planed them down to 5/8" thick and coated them with Ecowood. The most time-conceiving part was drilling all the holes through the steel. Two holes in each end of each board, so that's 208 holes. The first 4 were kind of fun, not the rest. Plus, I went back and countersunk each hole so the screw heads would be flush on the backside. It was worth it. I used a magnet - bolted to another piece of angle iron, which I screwed to the door jamb to hold the doors in place. These magnets are STRONG, so if the door gets within about an inch, they snap shut tight. I made some steel brackets that support the rod and a shelf above. The closet rod (3/4" steel pipe) slips through a sleeve welded to the bracket. I drilled and tapped a 3/16" hole in it so that I could use a small set-screw to lock the pipe in place. The shelves are plywood boards covered in canvas. They aren't even sewn, just folded and tacked on with black nails. It's basically just like wrapping a christmas present. I actually used staples for the first fold which are covered by the second one. So there you go! Clothes hidden, and when you do open them up it looks clean and organized inside. The doors cost me $18 each in materials and a few hours of time. The slats really help keep the room feeling open and don't draw your eye right in, the way a pair of solid doors probably would.
6 Responses
Jan
September 23, 2015
These are just amazing!
Inspire Me Heather
September 23, 2015
Wow, your closets look amazing! Great tutorial too, thanks! I have this linked to my closet doors post as well today – for inspiration!
Jenna at Homeslice
September 23, 2015
This is brilliant. I’m totally going to go cover all our closet shelves now… And when my husband is annoyed, I’ll blame it on you two :) jk.
jeannette
September 23, 2015
this is so awesome, in conception, design, and execution. the linen-wrapped shelves are killing me (i love a closet with a surprise: the one in my silver grey dining room is painted coral inside; the minty white living room closet is godzilla green.). yeah, baby!
Logan
September 23, 2015
Oh I forgot to mention that! Thanks John, I used non-mortissing hinges from Lowes.
John
September 23, 2015
Great idea! What sort of hinges did you use to hang the doors?
Jan
September 23, 2015
These are just amazing!