DIY Walk-in closet

Creating your own DIY walk-in closet doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. If you can build a box, you can make any closet you like!

So remember when I shared my front hall closet makeover, and I told you that I have been working on several closets in the new house…

Today I’m sharing the primary bedroom closet, small for a walk-in, but more than enough if the space is utilized to it’s full potential.

Here’s the before:

The dresser is actually mine; the previous homeowner was using just that single wire closet shelf for all of his belongings.

I’m not judging – it worked for him – but I don’t like having a dresser in the bedroom so I prefer to keep all of my clothing in one spot. That wasn’t going to happen with just a single hanging rod.

Time to maximize all of the space this little 5′ x 6′ room has!

First up, remove the wire shelving, patch the walls and paint.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a HUGE believer in painting all closets white. That way, no matter what colour you change your bedroom paint to, the closet will always go.

*this post contains Amazon affiliate links. These are links to items that I’ve used in this project and are for your convenience. For full Amazon affiliate disclosure, please see the bottom of the page.

Standard measurements

(there are variations of course, but these are the basics I worked with)

Clothing needs 24″ of hanging space, so clothing rods should be hung 12″ out from the wall with 12″ of clearance on the other side as well.
Depth of hanging units: 14″
Height of hanging units: 86″
Width of hanging units: per your closet dimensions
Height of lower clothing rod: 40″
Height of upper clothing rod: 82″
Depth of drawer units: 18″
Drawer heights: 9″
Drawer widths: per your closet dimensions, less drawer glide requirements
Sweater shelf depth: 14″
Sweater shelf height 12″

Double-hanging

Why have a single clothing rod, when you can have two?

Unless you wear full-length dresses all the time, it really is a waste of real-estate to just have a single rod hanging at 60″. With 9′ ceilings that’s 4 feet of extra storage space that is wasted!

Not on my watch folks.

I split the length of the back wall into two sections (taking into account the ¾” plywood) and built two rectangles at roughly 35″ wide by 86″ tall. I used pocket holes and 1 ¼” pocket screws to attach cross braces along the back.

Simply slide the two rectangles into place.

Then added a single board across the top of the rectangles to give me a high shelf for those less-used items, then I trimmed it out with 1 ¼” pre-primed MDF (I buy baseboards and rip them down to the widths I want – I find it’s a lot less expensive that way).

Banks of drawers

The dresser that I brought from our old house was too big for this small space, so another wishlist item for my DIY walk-in closet was two banks of drawers.

Again, just think rectangles! I used scrap ¾” plywood (from the workbench I dismantled) to create the drawer carcasses.

It doesn’t have to be a full carcass – just two sides and braces for stability. I went with 18″ deep to give me decently deep drawers.

I bought ½” plywood for the drawers and built 8 using wood glue and pocket screws to hold everything together.

Remember that the drawer carcass has to be perfectly square, and that the drawer boxes have to be ½”-1″ narrower than the carcass itself (read the instructions on your drawer glides for exact measurement).

Confession: I HATE drawers. I love how they work, look, store etc, but I loathe installing them! I almost never get them right on the first try…

until now!!

These little white ones are less expensive and not nearly as finicky as soft-close drawer glides. The installation was a breeze and 7 out of the 8 worked perfectly on my first attempt!!

Two drawer cabinets later and my DIY walk-in closet is really coming together!

The drawer boxes were placed on top of 2x4s to lift them 1 ½” up from the carpet so the drawers would slide easily.

Once these were in place, I attached both units together with wood screws, added a shim between the first drawer unit and the wall (the thickness of the baseboard), and attached through it to the wall.

Upper shelves

There was still a ton of space above the drawer units to either hang another clothing rod, or build some shelves for sweater/sweatshirt storage.

Using ¾” plywood and 1 ¼” pocket screws I built a bottomless rectangle that would sit on the counter above the drawers.

The finished height of the shelf unit would match the final height of the hanging units for a seamless look. Shelf spacing is usually around 12-14″, but I wanted a bit of counter space to pile folded laundry, hold my jewelry box and just drop knickknacks, so my bottom shelf is taller than the other two.

I picked up this laminate countertop free on FB Marketplace and cut it down to size. The upper shelving unit for my DIY walk-in closet was drilled down into the counter surface using pocket screws.

Trim and paint

Hang your clothing rods at 12″ out from the wall, then the lower at 40″ high and the upper at 82″ high.

Again, I ripped down pre-primed MDF baseboards like these to 1 ¼” for my trim. I applied the trim pieces using wood glue and 1 ¼” finishing nails with my brad nailer.

It’s crazy what a difference adding trim makes!!

After a coat of primer, I used trim caulking to fill in any gaps and nail holes, then sanded it once dry.

The drawer fronts were cut from ½” plywood at ¼” less than the space they are going to fill (1/8″ on either side and top/bottom).

My friend told me it would be easiest to attach the drawer fronts into place using double sided tape, then drill screws in from inside the drawer to hold them in place.

All fine and good IF you don’t accidentally press a drawer front into place the wrong way and then can’t get it back off again. UGH!

So yes, don’t look too closely at the mod podge of drawer fronts – let’s go with function over form.

I picked up these inexpensive handles from Amazon and voila!

MY DIY walk-in closet came in at about $350 CDN – which is considerably less than the $3,000 I was quoted.

Oh! I forgot to show you my hat storage!

These acrylic hat hooks can hold your hats hanging downwards like I have them, or you can tuck your hat in so that the beak is facing forward and stack them. Such a great find – especially at less than a dollar each!

I’m not a shoe collector, so I didn’t make shoe shelves for my DIY walk-in-closet – but you could easily add some to yours by building another rectangle or two and tucking them under the double hanging units. You could even turn one section of the hanging unit into shoe storage?

Easy peasy!

Save yourself thousands (literally) and try your hand at building rectangles – all you need is a saw, wood glue and nails to get you started. Build your tool arsenal as you gain confidence!

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