# Closet implosion!



## ergray3

Our house is about 30 years old, the master closet has wire rack with plastic hook anchors for shelving/clothing and one of the racks (the one with all my wife's nice clothes...) decided that today was end of life. It came crashing to the floor while I was in the next room. I think it's time to replace the whole kit, and in this time of extended backorders I think I'm going to have to build one from scratch. I would appreciate any tips regarding design and materials. The room is 88" x 80". I want something that will last "forever" and I don't want to think about weight restrictions. I'm not concerned about doing it on the cheap as long as I can get it done with reasonable speed. Many thanks in advance!


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## jayhawk

Did wife's closet before she moved in. So you have tools....table saw or track saw, experience or logic/reasoning, etc? I cc'd her melamine 'California closet' in her prior house using Russia-Russia birch ply, wall of shoes with cedar

How's floor? If u don't love it, perhaps it's cheap carpet, yank floor out and build from there....or you'll need a ton of ghetto shoe molding if u do the floor later

I can send u measurements....or? Kreg pocket hole jig ...get that. You'll want to consider baskets that glide out. Opportunity to upgrade lighting (led) etc


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## jayhawk

My closet is like above, wire and bland color ....it just collapsed. It's still held up using a Hartman suitcase. Too many other priorities


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## ergray3

jayhawk said:


> Did wife's closet before she moved in. So you have tools....table saw or track saw, experience or logic/reasoning, etc? I cc'd her melamine 'California closet' in her prior house using Russia-Russia birch ply, wall of shoes with cedar
> 
> How's floor? If u don't love it, perhaps it's cheap carpet, yank floor out and build from there....or you'll need a ton of ghetto shoe molding if u do the floor later
> 
> I can send u measurements....or? Kreg pocket hole jig ...get that. You'll want to consider baskets that glide out. Opportunity to upgrade lighting (led) etc


We did a bunch of internet peeping and she decided she just wants hanging space under shelves. Carpet and baseboards are fine, same as the bedroom. I found a decorative nickel plated steel closet rod and shelf bracket system from Everbuilt at HD, rated to 1000lb/pair with a matching plated steel rod that you can cut to custom. Gonna pull down everything, patch, paint her choice of color and put that system up with a bracket on every other stud. Currently deciding if I want to use white laminate shelves or try and be fancy with stained wood.

Bracket:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-8-in-x-12-4-in-x-1-05-in-Brushed-Nickel-Heavy-Duty-Shelf-and-Rod-Bracket-EH-WSTHDUS-326/300262692
8' Rod:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-8-ft-Brush-Nickel-Heavy-Duty-Closet-Rod-EH-WSTHDUS-315/300262626#product-overview


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## Mewwwda

Exact same thing happened to me about 2 years ago, entire side of closet fell while I was in next room. I went with the same setup that you linked except the Lowe's version. 2 rows on each side.

Did 4-5 laminate shelves with plain L brackets on each side for shoes and things. Went with 1x16x8' boards and painted them white at the very top to create a shelf as long as the closet. Pretty happy with how it turned out, we have clothes hanging on nearly every inch of the rods and they haven't even thought about falling. Still sort of basic, but it works and it's waaay sturdier than what was there before.

If I could do it again, I would go with the same lumber that I used up top for the shoe shelves as well. And instead of the L brackets, I would use the shelving system that has the multiple mounting holes in them that allow you to change your shelf heights if you wanted.


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## ergray3

I guess I'll turn this into a journal of sorts. Took a while but I got all the drywall anchors out. Seems very few points of contact with studs when they installed the closet, probably why it failed. Mixed up a couple pans of sheetrock 45 and got them plus all the other damage spots filled, sanded and primed. Put two coats of paint on today. Turned out pretty decent so far. I used Benjamin Moore Aura matte in edgecomb grey, which is a greyish beige color my wife likes. It has good coverage, so I guess I'd recommend it. It was $70 for the gallon and it went on pretty thick so it took the whole gallon.


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## ergray3

Hung the hardware today. I think I'm going to use cedar for the shelving but haven't decided for certain. The rods are very solid and with the brackets in the studs I am not worried about it failing again.

I used a laser level (bosch self leveling, $99) for the first time. Definitely recommend it, made it very easy to get a level base for the shelving while working alone and getting the plane true around the corners.


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