Storage Closets

Ron journeyed just west of Boston to the town of Wayland, Massachusetts, the home of Jack and Carole Hoag and their son, Brook. Years ago, before Ron traded his suits and ties for khakis and denims, he worked for Jack as a marketing executive. It was great fun for Ron to not only catch up with old friends, but to also work side by side with them on a wonderful home improvement project.

Click Here For a list of what you will need in order to complete this project.

Ron was asked to help the Hoags create more storage space in their guest room by constructing a pair of matching closets that would be both attractive and practical.

1. Design:

• Carole's first thought was to build one large closet all the way across the back wall of the guest room because they needed so much storage, but that would leave them with no place to put the bureau that she wanted to have in the room. Her solution was to build a closet on either side of the bureau.

View, download and print Ron's Storage Closet Drawings

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• Ron created a drawing of two matched closets, with raised panel doors with enough space between the two for the chest of drawers. The closets would be trimmed on the top with molding.

• On the inside of the closet on the left, Ron designed adjustable shelves from the top to bottom. On the right side, he designed two hanging rods.

• Carole and Brook used a compound miter saw to cut the 2 X 4s they needed to frame the closets.
  

• First they assembled and installed a rectangular frame against the ceiling to which they added four vertical posts. They attached the walls and doors onto this framework.

• The frames needed to be mounted onto wall studs, so Carole and Brook use electronic stud finders to locate and mark each one.

• They built the closet framework from the top down. It was much simpler to assemble the pieces of the top section first and then attach it to the ceiling as one piece.

• Brook and Carole drilled clearance holes through the ends of two boards, and then drove screws through them to assemble each side of the frame.

• Using a 2 X 4 for temporary support, they attached the frames directly to the wall studs.
  

• Carole was having difficulty with the drill slipping and Ron showed her how adding a bit more pressure on the back of the drill solved these problems.

• They cut the post sections with a small notch at the bottom of each one so it would slip right over the baseboard.

• They were able to easily attach the wall framing at the top and the bottom with screws, but there was no wall stud in the middle so they could not use screws to make the center attachment. Instead they used a toggle bolt. Ron drilled through the hole he had made earlier, and made a marker hole in the wall.

• He removed the frame piece from the wall and enlarged the marker hole to a half-inch.

• Ron passed a bolt through the 2 X 4 and screwed the toggle on the other end with just a few turns.