New House Series - Media Room Pt 5 - Shelves!
Hey reader,
It has been a long time since we talked about the drive in movie theater. I finished painting it and got the bed in place, installed the fencing, but that was about it. I finally got some more stuff to put in that room, and that means getting some shelving in the closet. I have been really hesitant to start working on the closets. Not only are the walls not perfectly smooth in there - gasp - but closet organization stuff is kind of absurdly expensive.
However, I can't put it off forever. The closets throughout the house have the absolute bare minimum. This one has a shelf and a rod hook so I could hang clothes. I don't really have a need to hang clothes in there, and I have a lot of games and other silly stuff I want to throw in that closet. It is going to need to be like Hermione's growing purse because it is going to be FULL.
I spent easily a month looking at the Container Store, Pinterest, and a million other places for closet organization ideas. All of them had two things in common - being wildly expensive and requiring a lot of preplanning. I don't really understand why shelving like this is so expensive, I would like to try building my own eventually because I think it would be much cheaper. That is definitely a project for another day though.
I settled on Closet Maid from Home Depot. The shelves are adjustable and can be reconfigured over time, which was attractive to me as I grow into my spaces - and for resale. All in all, it was a pretty great product, but I did encounter some hurdles you might want to be aware of.
The systems are sold based on the width of your closet. My closet measures 5ft 5in so I went with the 5-8ft model. One thing it does not tell you, is that if your closet is under 6ft, you will need to make some cuts to the top brace. This top brace is one of the main structural supports of the closet system and I was going to have to make a cut through it. The instructions imply that a hand saw will work. Let me tell you what a load of malarkey that is. Yes, I just said "malarkey." I am writing a blog post about storage solutions - that is definitely the kind of person who says "malarkey."
I don't have a table saw - yet - so I tried using some metal cutting hand tools to no avail. Finally, I decided to break out my rotary tool. This is definitely the anticipated use of the rotary tool and at no point did one of the tiny disposable blades snap under the pressure sending a tiny cardboard disk whizzing around my garage. No. That didn't happen. Point is, that is a step that the box doesn't make abundantly clear how challenging it could be based on the tools a novice DIY-er is going to have at home.
I removed the existing shelving. As I write this, I am wondering if I should save the wood and reuse it in another closet as it is already cut to fit. I think that might wind up happening.
Anyway, I painted the walls eggshell white. I did some pretty half-assed patching of where the shelf was, you really won't see it so its not a big deal.
The instructions for the system said you could hang it however you want, but that the normal height was 84 inches. I realize now that is the average height when you plan on hanging clothes from the bottom of the shelves, which I am not planning on doing. I would have hung the whole thing lower, but it will still do what I need it to do.
The horizontal top bracket gets screwed in at a few preselected points, and the vertical supports clip into it and are also screwed into the wall. The support brackets for the shelves then attach to the vertical braces and can be re positioned you whatever height you want like in the supermarket. It is pretty firmly in place - though I wish the product let me pick where I could drill into it so that I could hit a few more studs along the way. The instructions said it didn't really matter, but I would certainly feel a little better. Fortunately, there isn't going to be hundreds of pounds on these, just old toys, games and clothes.
Screwing into the studs was pretty self explanatory, but attaching in the other spots used a toggle bolt system that I have never used before. If you are like me and don't know toggle bolts, they are these little metal butterfly things that screw onto the back of your screws and actually punch through to the other side of the wall. Then they open and tighten against the wall to make a good seal.
As you can see, the hole has to be a little bigger than a standard screw. I was worried I didn't have it on the screw tight enough, and that it would fall off behind the wall, but as I tightened the screw, the toggle got closer until it was flush.
I didn't get very fancy and just put three shelves in. Another thing that I didn't realize was that the shelving would need to be cut to length if I wanted it smaller. I don't know why I assumed it would come with short shelve so I could stagger. Either way, I think it came out really nice and will be great for what I am trying to make happen.
These shelves are going to be for a lot of my stuff that doesn't have a reasonable home anywhere else. It is going to neaten up my garage and give me more space to put the finishing touches on the piano bar!
Keep making cool stuff. Until next time,
JoshPrime
It has been a long time since we talked about the drive in movie theater. I finished painting it and got the bed in place, installed the fencing, but that was about it. I finally got some more stuff to put in that room, and that means getting some shelving in the closet. I have been really hesitant to start working on the closets. Not only are the walls not perfectly smooth in there - gasp - but closet organization stuff is kind of absurdly expensive.
However, I can't put it off forever. The closets throughout the house have the absolute bare minimum. This one has a shelf and a rod hook so I could hang clothes. I don't really have a need to hang clothes in there, and I have a lot of games and other silly stuff I want to throw in that closet. It is going to need to be like Hermione's growing purse because it is going to be FULL.
I spent easily a month looking at the Container Store, Pinterest, and a million other places for closet organization ideas. All of them had two things in common - being wildly expensive and requiring a lot of preplanning. I don't really understand why shelving like this is so expensive, I would like to try building my own eventually because I think it would be much cheaper. That is definitely a project for another day though.
The systems are sold based on the width of your closet. My closet measures 5ft 5in so I went with the 5-8ft model. One thing it does not tell you, is that if your closet is under 6ft, you will need to make some cuts to the top brace. This top brace is one of the main structural supports of the closet system and I was going to have to make a cut through it. The instructions imply that a hand saw will work. Let me tell you what a load of malarkey that is. Yes, I just said "malarkey." I am writing a blog post about storage solutions - that is definitely the kind of person who says "malarkey."
I don't have a table saw - yet - so I tried using some metal cutting hand tools to no avail. Finally, I decided to break out my rotary tool. This is definitely the anticipated use of the rotary tool and at no point did one of the tiny disposable blades snap under the pressure sending a tiny cardboard disk whizzing around my garage. No. That didn't happen. Point is, that is a step that the box doesn't make abundantly clear how challenging it could be based on the tools a novice DIY-er is going to have at home.
Anyway, I painted the walls eggshell white. I did some pretty half-assed patching of where the shelf was, you really won't see it so its not a big deal.
The instructions for the system said you could hang it however you want, but that the normal height was 84 inches. I realize now that is the average height when you plan on hanging clothes from the bottom of the shelves, which I am not planning on doing. I would have hung the whole thing lower, but it will still do what I need it to do.
Screwing into the studs was pretty self explanatory, but attaching in the other spots used a toggle bolt system that I have never used before. If you are like me and don't know toggle bolts, they are these little metal butterfly things that screw onto the back of your screws and actually punch through to the other side of the wall. Then they open and tighten against the wall to make a good seal.
As you can see, the hole has to be a little bigger than a standard screw. I was worried I didn't have it on the screw tight enough, and that it would fall off behind the wall, but as I tightened the screw, the toggle got closer until it was flush.
I didn't get very fancy and just put three shelves in. Another thing that I didn't realize was that the shelving would need to be cut to length if I wanted it smaller. I don't know why I assumed it would come with short shelve so I could stagger. Either way, I think it came out really nice and will be great for what I am trying to make happen.
These shelves are going to be for a lot of my stuff that doesn't have a reasonable home anywhere else. It is going to neaten up my garage and give me more space to put the finishing touches on the piano bar!Keep making cool stuff. Until next time,
JoshPrime
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