life, love, and renovation.: How to design and build a wardrobe

Building a proper wardrobe is like building a home. Indeed, you should think of it like a home, because it is something you're going to live in. It must be comfortable and suit all your needs.

Edith Head

Now ain't that the truth? In daily life a well designed wardrobe saves you time and money. Gone will be the mornings spent rushing around trying to locate your grey trousers, or your red polo neck sweater. Gone will be the days of finding your new pink silk Laura Ashley dress crushed on the floor under an avalanche of winter shoes. Everything will have a place. Oh the dream was so sweet. And it is finally here.

After almost 5 years of looking for a wardrobe company that would design and build my dream wardrobe, without me needing to sell a vital organ to pay for it, I came across this post The View Along the Way - Closet reveal .

And my eyes were opened to the possibilities. I could design and build my own wardrobe. Brilliant!
Why had I never considered this before?

So off to work I went.

Step one: Cull your wardrobe contents.
By far the hardest part of the whole process. Now is the time to discard any item that is too well worn to be seen in public again, anything stained, misshaped, unflattering, or just plain ugly. This includes shoes, belts, handbags, and accessories.

Stocktake whatever is left and decide what should be grouped together. Business clothes, leisure wear, etc. I went with a simple tops, bottoms, long items, shoes, bags, underwear, folded items, and miscellaneous things (bathing suit, sarongs, gloves, etc).

Step 2 Decide on your design.
Pinterest is the place for this pleasant task. I drew my plan on some math book grid paper. I measured my wardrobe area and wrote the dimensions onto the outside lines. Then I drew up spaces for each type of item from my stocktake list. When calculating the area, you need to consider how long a space you'll need. Include the length of the hanging garment from the rail, including the hanger itself. Do not measure from the top of the space. You'll need room to put the hanger on and off the rail with ease.

Step 3 Engage the Labour.
Now was the time to convince The Bloke that he should abandon the half-done garage storage project (Build a garage storage unit) and move his carpentry skills into the wardrobe.
If you are thinking you or your husband /partner don't have the skills for this project, add a 'yet' to this thought. While The Bloke is very handy with metal and engines, until the kitchen cabinets (Building a retro inspired kitchen shelving unit) he hadn't done a lot of woodwork other than basic stuff like fencing (just nailing in place straight cut boards). Once I showed him the wardrobe post he thought he could do it.

Step 4 Buy / hire a router.
A router made a huge difference to how professional this job looked. The router cuts out a space in the wood into which you slot the shelf. This makes the unit look like one complete object rather than several pieces stuck together. We bought our router from Bunnings for about $90.
It did take a bit of practice to get the hang of using it. The Bloke recommends clamping a board onto the piece you are about work on. This means you can rest the router against the board and cut a nice straight line.

The router creates the space for the shelf to slot into the upright side. Once its filled and painted it looks like one piece. Can't emphasis enough what a difference this made to the end result.

Step 5 Measure twice, cut once.
This old adage is vital if you want to avoid martial disharmony and any swearing or throwing of small pieces of equipment (or large ones for that matter).
Again make sure to measure your longest item of clothing to be hung so whatever you have decided to put into that area, the section is made long enough so the clothes don't drape on the floor. Don't forget to allow space for the item to be moved on and off the railing.

Step 6 Make your wardrobe.
The Bloke cut all the pieces according to our measurements and then added the routing slots. He used glue and screws to secure the shelves. Right angle brackets were used to attach the shelving units to the wall.
The other thing that made a big difference to the end result was, again, a tip from The View Along the Way Closet make-over. We attached to the front face of the units a 1 1/4 inch strip of cut pine to give it that chunky solid look. What a difference that made when I compare it to the garage unit (Build a garage storage unit).

Step 7 Fill and paint.
We used plaster to fill any gaps or holes. Any nail or screws were tapped in (or screwed in) so they sat below the surface of the wood and were covered with plaster. Once dry, I sanded the excess off and painted the whole thing. One undercoat and two top coats. This is a long tedious process and in reflection I should have done the undercoat before the wood was cut up as it would have been so much faster.

And voila...dream wardrobe complete. It was worth every second of work. After a while I did add some wire baskets and as many hooks as I could to store all those little items that never seem to have a place, like fabric flower brooches and fascinators and long beads, and nail polish, and toe separators and on and on...

Sadly when my mobile was stolen most of my photos of the building process were lost (along with all my fiji holiday snaps. Whaaaaa) so only a few of the end result are here and one from the construction. But apart from the routing, we used the same technique as the garage storage unit, so check out that post for details.

The cost of this fabulous creation? Materials (wood, nails, brackets, screws) approx $570 + $90 for the router. The paint and filler we had left over from painting the interior walls. Quite a substantial saving on the commercial wardrobe that would have cost several thousand dollars.

A few wire baskets for holding my purse collection. These were screwed to the free wall and have been soooo useful.

The two free standing units were free from a friend. I have painted one white which turned out better than I had thought, so I must get on to painting the other one!

I already had the white cane baskets from a unit I used elsewhere in the house. They fit quite well, but will eventually be changed out for black fabric ones.

Hangers that are all the same would be great and make the whole space look more uniform...one day.

This photo is a reflection in the mirror covering the inside wall. This wall couldn't be used for anything else as it backs onto the cavity for the sliding door. The mirror is great for making the space look huge and, of course for checking out my outfit for the day.

The blokes shoe storage...I take no responsibility for this.