Making your own walk-in closet
Creating a beautiful and practical walk-in wardrobe doesn't have to be difficult at all. A walk-in wardrobe is ideal for your bedroom, to store all your clothes, shoes and accessories. But, a walk-in wardrobe also comes in handy in the utility room, for example. In this article we explain how to make a nice walk-in wardrobe yourself.
In this article:
- How to make your own walk-in closet?
- What items do you need to make a cut-to-size walk-in closet?
- How to make a drawing or sketch for a walk-in closet
- What parts do you use in a walk-in closet
- What wood to use for a walk-in closet
- How to connect sheet materials in a walk-in closet
- Examples of walk-in closets from our handymen
- Get started on your own cut-to-size walk-in closet
How to make your own walk-in closet?
You can make a walk-in closet yourself fairly easily. The most obvious way is to use a space or room in your house that is not too big. You can also create a space yourself, for example by splitting a large room with a wall and leaving an opening in it.
Whatever your choice, you can easily order the wood material for your walk-in closet at TOSIZE.ie. We offer a wide range of wood material, such as MDF, plywood, plywood, OSB, concrete plywood and much more. We cut the wood to size for you and deliver it quickly to your home. That way, you don't have to do any tedious sawing work and can focus entirely on assembling and finishing the wood.
Further on in this article, we also share with you some DIY walk-in closets from our handymen. Let this inspire you for your own project!
What items do you need to make a cut-to-size walk-in closet?
Making a walk-in closet cut-to-size is not a complicated job, but you will need some tools. In general, you should consider the following materials:
- Checkered paper, pencil, eraser, ruler: for an accurate sketch of your walk-in closet
- Cordless drill: to easily pre-drill holes and drive screws into your material
- Wood glue and possibly dowels: may be needed to firmly glue various parts of your walk-in closet together
- Primer and varnish: almost all timbers from TOSIZE.ie have yet to be finished - primer first, then varnish
- Sandpaper: always handy to have on hand, with a coarse or small grain
- Tape measure: you will need it to measure the dimensions and mark off your wood
- Level: for a walk-in closet that is neatly straight
- Screws: to join different wood materials together
How to make a drawing or sketch for a walk-in closet
If you are making your own walk-in closet, you should first make a drawing or sketch of your project. This will help you flesh out your idea and force yourself to think carefully about every detail. In the end, you need an accurate drawing or sketch with an overview of all the measurements and materials needed. With that overview, you can easily order the wood from us, precisely cut-to-size.
When sketching your walk-in closet, think about which elements you would like to see reflected in your closet. Do you only want shelves? Or also drawers and clothes racks? Maybe use existing cabinet parts (like from IKEA, check out these IKEA hacks) that you can easily place. Of course, you can also opt for a combination of existing cabinet parts and homemade parts.
You can make a drawing simply on paper. With a pencil, a ruler and an eraser. But, you can also use a 3D programme, such as SketchUp or FreeCAD.
Tip: are you ordering the wood material for your walk-in closet from us? Then provide each shelf with a unique mark (you can indicate this in our ordering process), which will save you a lot of puzzling when the wood is delivered to your home!
What parts do you use in a walk-in closet
We mentioned it before: you can build a walk-in closet with different elements. You can of course combine the different parts for a perfectly cut-to-size walk-in closet.
Below we list some common options:
Shelves
We see the use of shelves in many walk-in closets. Logical, because it creates a lot of storage space and is easy to access. Shelves can be installed in many different ways, read our article on making your own shelves.
Existing cabinet parts
A handy and quick way to build your walk-in closet is to use existing cabinet parts. Maybe you have an old cabinet you can reuse, but there are also IKEA systems you can use for this purpose. By using existing cabinet parts, you also don't have to start making drawers yourself. Combining existing cabinet parts with your own creation is a great solution for a homemade walk-in closet. Check out this DIY project by our handyman Alessandra.
Clothes racks
Indispensable in a wardrobe and therefore also in many walk-in closets: a clothes rack. You can easily make a clothes rack yourself from, for example, a piece of scaffolding tube or another tube. You attach this between two sections of the wardrobe, for example. Pre-drill the hole (use a drill stop or a piece of tape on the drill bit to avoid drilling too deep) and screw the tube in place.
You can also put a standing clothes rack in the walk-in closet.
Drawers
What can also be very handy is using drawers in your walk-in closet. Making drawers yourself can still be a complicated job, so it might be wise to use pre-assembled drawers.
What wood to use for a walk-in closet
If you want to make your own walk-in closet, you can use many types of wood to do so. At TOSIZE.ie, you can choose from a very wide Assortment with, for example, phenolic plywood, MDF, plywood, OSB and furniture and joinery panels.
Each type of wood has its own unique properties. For example, OSB is structurally very strong and MDF is a type of wood that can be used for just about anything.
We often see the following types of wood in the DIY projects of our handymen:
MDF
MDF is widely used for walk-in closets. This is because this material is available in many variants, is easy to work with and does not splinter. MDF consists of wood fibres compressed under high pressure. MDF is also available in a paint-bearing version, which saves you a lot of time when painting.
Plywood
Plywood boards are suitable for decorative and structural purposes. Plywood is versatile, strong and easy to work with. You often see the material in furniture, such as cabinets for example. Plywood is also easy to order from TOSIZE.ie, cut to the millimetre and delivered to your home with ease.
How to connect sheet materials in a walk-in closet
In a homemade walk-in closet, you need to connect different wood materials. There are different techniques for this. We discuss four of them here.
Screws
You can fasten the sheet materials together with screws. Remember to pre-drill the wood first and finish the screw holes neatly with putty.
Corner joints
Less beautiful, but simple, is the use of corner joints. This way, you easily screw different sheet materials together.
Dowels
With dowels, you create invisible joints that are incredibly strong. First mark the drill holes neatly and drill holes in the wood with a dowel drill set. Then use a little wood glue to connect the dowels and the boards.
Lamellos
Lamellos are a kind of larger, oval-shaped dowels. Due to the larger glue area, lamello's create even stronger joints than dowels. You do need a milling machine to mill the slots for the dowels into the wood.
By the way, did you know that we can mitre-cut your sheet metal for you? Check out our finishing options for more information.
Examples of walk-in closets from our handymen
Our handymen went before you with a homemade walk-in closet. Luckily, they shared their DIY project with us, so you can be inspired by it.
Walk-in closet made of MDF film
Handyman Matthijs created a beautiful 3D design for his walk-in closet made of mdf film. For this, he had 61 cut-to-size planks delivered to his home. He added furniture panels, drawer guides and handles himself and finally finished the cupboard in high-gloss white. It turned out to be real craftsmanship!
Walk-in closet for complete wardrobe
If you already have a few chests of drawers, you can use them as the basis for a homemade walk-in closet. So did handyman Alessandra, with her walk-in closet for a complete wardrobe made of plywood birch. She is proud of the result and should be!
Walk-in closet with scaffolding tubes
This walk-in closet made of scaffold tubes with plywood birch shelves is stylish and practical. The shelves are attached with clamps. Simple and effective!
That a walk-in closet doesn't have to be for your wardrobe proves handyman Willia. She made this walk-in closet in the pantry with mdf film. It was a big job, with mitred and blind-mounted shelves. The result is very nice, with lots of storage space.
Get to work on your cut-to-size walk-in closet
Now is the time for you to get started yourself. In this article, we have got you started on how to create your own cut-to-size walk-in closet. Our handymen's inspiration projects might just give you the push you need to get started.
For the wood for this job, you can of course turn to TOSIZE.ie. We will cut the wood perfectly to size for you and deliver it quickly to your home.
Is your walk-in closet ready? You might like to share your result with us. That way, you can in turn inspire other (aspiring) handymen!
Have fun making your own walk-in closet!
