Craft Room in a Closet – Stage 2: Build it!

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I’ve been working hard crafting in my new craft room in a closet, and figured maybe it’s about time I share with you how building it went down… A coupla months ago, I wrote up about how we planned this, so that you can adapt it to your space. Now I’m going to share with you how we actually built it so that it’s strong enough to handle my abuse.

Building a craft room in a closet is not as crazy an ambition as you might think. It doesn’t require extensive plans – just some simple measurements.

You WILL need to create the plan to suit your space – it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Once you do, it’s time to build that awesome craft room of your dreams!!

How to build a craft room in a closet:

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Here’s the rundown of how we built my craft room in a closet. Full disclosure: I did most of the planning. My husband and brother-in-law did most of the building – mainly because I was busy keeping the kids back, and because my brother-in-law is a darling (plus, he has better power tools than us…)

We started off with pieces of wood cut to size, as we took care of this in the planning stage.

Start by staining your boards. You can go with a clear coat of poly or do a nice poly+stain like we did.

Make sure to start with a clean surface, and brush in the direction of the wood grain.

Don’t forget the sides that will show! I would do 2-3 layers so that your surface is washable and you lose the absorbent quality of the wood.

Do this with all of your shelves.

Next, measure a comfortable working height for you. Mark it in pencil. Mark your shelf placement as well. A good way to plan this is to figure out which storage containers you’ll be using for supplies and leave space for two stacked high. Don’t forget to calculate the thickness of the shelves!! I did leave a larger area above my work surface so that I’m not struggling to work beneath shelves that are placed too low.

Use a stud finder to figure out where the studs are in  your home. Mark those as well, as that’s where you’ll be screwing your shelves into the wall.

We used 2×4 beams to attach the shelves to the wall, so that they have support throughout the length. Measure and cut how big you need it.

Screw it into the wall at the studs. Start with one screw at one stud, but put it about 1/3 of the way down.

Use a level to make sure the beam is straight, and screw it in 1/3 of the way down at the next stud. You can now add another screw in all the stud locations 2/3 of the way down, so that you have two screws holding it in at each stud.

Time to screw on your boards! Drill it into the 2×4 beams from the top.

Attach all your boards and shelves this way. If you are doing an “L” shape like I did, make sure that they connect at the same height, so that you have a flat, even work surface.

We actually reinforced the shelves at high tension spots with shelf brackets.

Now, for my “corner.” My shelves, including the work shelf, are only one foot deep. That doesn’t make for a very big work surface, especially for larger projects. So, as you’ve seen in my plan, I decided to add a triangle to turn it into a deep corner shelf. Since the “L” shape meets at a right angle, it’s not so complicated – I just needed a right angle, and after that it didn’t matter how big it was. I made it the biggest size that wouldn’t overwhelm the tiny room.

(You’ll see in the images here that it’s raw, but I did stain it later on.)

It was first attached using a corner brace, with the corner  attaching to the triangle add-on (on the bottom) and the end holes connecting to the shelves on either side, as pictured.

It was reinforced using a 2×4 beam, cut at an angle to connect to the 2×4 that holds up the main work-level shelf. 

And here is the final craft room in a closet workspace!

Obviously, I still need to organize it. For now, my supplies are just thrown into boxes on the shelf. I have huge plans for organizing it so that I make the most of the small area that the craft room in a closet offers me. And to top it off, I just got a sewing machine to fit in as well!

   

   
So I hope you’ll follow along as I organize, bring in electricity, add lighting, and finish off my craft room in a closet!

Have you ever built a craft room in a closet? What tips do you have to offer me and my readers? Comment below!

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