T and Miss Aly have been doing a lot of renovating in their charming new home. Their latest project was a closet renovation to create more storage space. T sent me the following photos and how-to instructions in hopes of helping out someone in need of instruction.
Step 1: Pre-job. Moving stuff out of the way. Miss Aly was happy to get started.
Step 2: Pull off all trim, doors, and closet interior.
Step 3: Tape off where you want the closet to go.
Step 4: Drywall demo. Prior to this step, T had to re-route wiring. Be sure to use an accessible junction box at each splice. Boxes are inside the closet.
Step 5: Because the wall is non-load bearing, T opted for only two 2x4's as the header. Arguably should have used 2x6's.
Step 6: T had to buy an entire sheet of drywall to patch his small mess. Good thing drywall is cheap.
Step 7: Fortunately, the inside of the old door had this nice trim. T used one of the tall lengths to span the closet.
Step 8: T bought a sheet of 3/4" medium density fiberboard for the built in shelf. Shelf pre-fabricated before fastening to wall. He used red oak from Home Depot to patch in the gap left from the previous wall.
Step 9: T used some cheap trim to cover the base of the closet and around the interior of the door.
Step 10: Apply a coat of latex Kilz primer on all the wood.
Step 11: Used Behr premium ultra Polar Bear White (their favorite paint color by volume) to coat the interior.
Step 12: These doors are just from Lowes. Two 36" bi-fold doors mounted at each side of the opening.
Step 13: Closet doors installed with sample colors on walls.
Step 14: Used Kilz Complete oil-based primer to prime the trim with polar bear white to finish it off Used Behr Premium Elephant skin gray for the rest of the room.
Step 15: Paint all trim and walls to match.
And there you have it! A beautiful finished product. Not only does it look great, it also saved them money by DIY-ing it!
Total project cost (estimated)
Doors: $110Lumber: $90
Paint and caulk: $80
Oak Flooring: $70
New Trim: $40
Total: $390
Hours: 50 (Aly and I combined)
DIY savings: (Around $1000)
So go ahead and do-it-yourself! You'll save money, have a personalized look, and feel very fulfilled in the end.
