Closet Remodel

[Chestnut]

This is going to be a bit different of a project. Megan and I have discussed at length a means to provide a space for her to get ready but also be easily hidden. Our home office has a close that isn't very well utilized instead of piling boxes and totes there, we'll shift them to the now finished garage. A lot of discussion and talking lead to building a dressing/makeup vanity in the office closet. Not really sure how this is goign to end up. I'll be designing as we go. Main parts that I know I'll be making are a work surface, a rolling drawer organizer, and a mirror with lights.

I started off with the work surface. It's probably easiest to show the finished picture first. Then I'll just work backwards.

I used cleats nailed to the wall to hold the top. There are no brackets so all of the space under neath is open. To make sure that the work surface was stiff enough but also not overly heavy, I made it torsion box style. With the front edge sticking out some to tie it into the closet opening.

Below you can se the top section. This top is very strong at 70" long i was able to support it at each end and sit on the middle. There was zero noticeable flex.

The top is 3/4 maple and i have 5 ribs running the length of the top. I don't have cross braces as I don't expect this to see a lot of weight. The bottom side of the ribs is a 1/4" sheet of baltic birch ply. The ribs and baltic birch ply are inset 1" in from the top. This creates a rabbet of sorts so the cleats that hold the top to the wall are practically hidden and won't intrude on storage space under neath. The rabbet is more noticeable in picture number 2

Clamping the baltic birch to the bottom of the ribs was difficult as I don't have long reach clamps that can reach in 13" so I just utilized some hard maple.

I needed to pull this maple off the rack anyways so I just timed the wood reorganization so the wood could act as a clamp. It worked well.

Clamping the ribs to the bottom of the 3/4" ply was also difficult but I was able to make due but using a caul setup that would transfer the clamping force from a clamp to the internal rib.

Up next is the drawer organizer, and I have a really really cool idea for a stool that will fit booth the dressing area well and also match the furniture in the room.

[Jonathan McCully]

Looks great so far. Love watching people with more experience than I have design and build as they go. I’m hopeful my skill level will allow me that flexibility/creativity someday. Never would have thought to use a torsion box to give the top more stability without adding significant weight. Very clever and I’ll have to remember that.

[Chestnut]

28 minutes ago, Jonathan McCully said:

Looks great so far. Love watching people with more experience than I have design and build as they go. I’m hopeful my skill level will allow me that flexibility/creativity someday. Never would have thought to use a torsion box to give the top more stability without adding significant weight. Very clever and I’ll have to remember that.

I could have reduced the weight a lot more by doing more ribs in the middle and doing 1/4" for both the top and bottom or even 1/2" for the top. I used 3/4" because i had the plywood on hand and it's cheaper to use what you have then to buy new. The top weighs 35 lbs tops so moving it around and getting it into place was nice and easy.

[wtnhighlander]

Drew, I'll send you ten bucks if you hide that closet behind a secret swinging book case. Secret rooms are just cool, no matter what.

[Chestnut]

I love secret rooms and would love to do that. There unfortunately just isn't room for that to work out here. The door into the bedroom/office is right there and the whole space would be very cramped. Also unfortunately the best place for a secret room is in my shop. There is a section of the basement that is difficult to comprehend why it's there as it takes some acute spatial awareness to put things together. It'd be the perfect place for a secret room. Most people would just assume that the basement ended. By my shop isn't getting converted into living space any time soon.

[Chestnut]

So the organizer isn't next. The next part is the mirror and lighting. The lights I went with are from American Greenlight. The make rigid strip lights that have a diffuser and can be paired with a dimable ballast. I've used these lights in the past and they have excellent color rendition which is also helpful.

I did some tests to see how best to put the lights. My main concern was they would be to bright to direct forward. With the dimmer switch it's very easy to get a good brightness without causing eye strain. I did put a makeshift mirror in place to test this better. The lamp holder in this picture was only temporary, I have put an outlet there now.

To make the frame instead of trying to perfectly calibrate the miter gauge to 45 degrees, i set up 2 of my miter gauges on opposite sides of the blade. I then put a square between them so the angle is exactly 90 degrees. This worked really well the miters came out perfect. I prefer cutting with the angles pointed in this direction as well. Cutting this way puts the point of the miter along the miter gauge fence so stop blockers are easier and more accurate to reference.

Frame is simple and walnut. I angled the face of the frame in 15 degrees just to add some depth but also the lights will be mounted on the frame and angling them in reduces shadows towards the middle of the mirror.

Next was my attempt at cutting  a mirror to fit. I had a size in mind to fit the space which i couldn't buy off the shelf. I also messed up and made the frame an inch narrower than I intended. Cutting the mirror didn't go well at all. I did all of the steps (cleaned the mirror well, scored the back with a razor blade, marked the front with the cutting wheel, snapped in 1 fluid sharp motion) and the mirror broke strait through the middle. I was a bit frustrated and needed to break it down further to fit in the recycling can so i threw a hammer at it. There wasn't any salvageable sized pieces and I had little faith i could get clean cuts anyway.

I'm going to just have a local shop cut me a mirror.

[pkinneb]

I've cut a fair amount of glass without issue but never a mirror is it the mirror film that causes the problem? 

[Chestnut]

32 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

I've cut a fair amount of glass without issue but never a mirror is it the mirror film that causes the problem? 

I don't think so because when it broke, the film on the back didn't tear. I also scored the film on the back with a razor blade prior to trying to cut the mirror. How thick is the glass you've cut? I don't know if thickness or temper plays into things but the glass was a full 1/4" thick.

[curlyoak]

2 hours ago, Chestnut said:

o make the frame instead of trying to perfectly calibrate the miter gauge to 45 degrees, i set up 2 of my miter gauges on opposite sides of the blade. I then put a square between them so the angle is exactly 90 degrees

When I built my mitre sled for the table saw 90 was the most important. It is close to 45 plus or minus a tiny. What matters is the 90. works great.

[Chestnut]

Got the quote for a custom cut mirror, $88. Not bad considering the mirror I broke was $50. I knew i should have just gone to the professional to begin with.

1 hour ago, curlyoak said:

When I built my mitre sled for the table saw 90 was the most important. It is close to 45 plus or minus a tiny. What matters is the 90. works great.

I've thought about making  a sled like that but now that I have 3 miter gauges it's just as easy to square between 2 of them. This way I don't have to store a unitasker sled.

[pkinneb]

5 hours ago, Chestnut said:

I don't think so because when it broke, the film on the back didn't tear. I also scored the film on the back with a razor blade prior to trying to cut the mirror. How thick is the glass you've cut? I don't know if thickness or temper plays into things but the glass was a full 1/4" thick.

Ahh good point! I don't think I have cut anything over 3/32nds most stain glass and picture frame glass is closer to 1/8"

[Coop]

I was going to put up rain gutters on my house and my wife convinced me that there are people that do that for a living and are probably much younger than me. I can’t imagine cutting a mirror on my own. 

Hammer well placed! 

[Chestnut]

After the frame was done drying I eased the edges and then applied 3 coats of shellac with a hake brush. It's a brush that is designed for thin materials like water color paints etc so it works well for shellac. I put the frame in the space to get an idea of where the switch should be placed.

After marking out where the switch box was going to go and the power cord. I took the top back to the shop and drilled a hole through. To make the hole a slot i made a pair of cuts on the back.

Power cord.

I needed the power cord to go through the top so i could have everything fairly well hidden under the top. The goal is to run a power strip off of a switch so when the light is shut off as is anything that gets plugged in. This is more or less for safety. The switch is mounted with 2 tabs on the back side. I cut a relief so the switch wouldn't run into the wall.

Underside of the top. You can see the hole that goes to the switch, and where the ballast and power strip have been mounted. At some point i'll have some cable tie mounts and tie the cables up but i want to make sure everything gets set up first.

To mount the mirror i used a french cleat. This just makes it easy. I did need to cut some slots in the mirror cleat and the wall cleat to allow the power wires for the lights and the main power cord to run through. Hindsight i should have put the outlet much lower... I wanted it above the top so it doesn't get kicked. I can always change it later if i want it's just a bit of drywall work.

Mirror installed and finished.

Here is a close up of the dimmer.

I just double stick taped it to the outlet. I suppose i could have drilled a hole and mounted it inside but that sounds difficult.

[Coop]

Well done Nut! I bet you will find like me, that you will never use the dimmer switch. I put one on a can light over our guest bathroom tub/shower and it has never been used. I thought that my wife would use it while soaking, kind of like candles, but not the case. I also had the contractor of our remodel install them for our 4 can lights in the bedroom and the patio . We’ll see how that works. 

[Chestnut]

After Megan got to use her setup for a while she had a better idea of what kind of storage was needed. We discussed some ways to accomplish what she was looking for and in the end her idea was the best one.

The unit is 1/2" baltic birch edge banded in maple. The idea was to have small shelves for commonly used items with bulk storage behind. The trick was to figure out how to access the bulk storage in an easy way when a few items are on a shelf in front. My contribution was the sliding doors.

To help prevent things from getting lost as accessing the back corner is very difficult for short people with short arms. We decided that blocking off the back corner would be best. In the image above you can see that only the left side is open. The doors are 1/4" baltic birch, to make sliding easy i waxed the crap out of the grooves. I should have sanded them prior to assembly but I didn't oopps. They still slide like a curling stone on fresh pebble though. I used shellac for finish. The handles were just maple off cuts from making the edge banding.

For reference there was a LOT of discussion regarding the shelf spacing. We landed on 12", 8", and 6". These were best for most items. It seems like a lot of the tallest bottles cap out at 11" so an inch space leaves nice easy access.

I managed to get pictures before it's covered in stuff. It was a fun project and took me 2 weekend days and a couple shop evenings.

[Tom King]

"Her" ideas are always the best ones to go with.

[wtnhighlander]

How deep is that space, Drew?

[Chestnut]

1 hour ago, wtnhighlander said:

How deep is that space, Drew?

The closet is 26" deep. It's closer to 28" to the back of the door. The storage unit was 12" deep with 3" shelves.

[Chestnut]

The next item for the closet was a rolling storage cabinet for items less frequently used. It was another quick to knock out project as it's just a simple box with 2 drawers. I made the case form Maple ply and edge beanded all the plywood edges with shop sawn veneer to spruce up the look. The drawers were constructed with rabbets and brad nails. I attached some solid maple for drawer fronts.

In the last picture to can some what see the wheels. The wheels I got were roller blade style wheels that mount like office chair wheels. To mount them I drilled a 5/16" hole in some maple that got glued to the bottom of the case. I then inserted the post of the wheel assembly. It was a very easy install. The wheels despite being inexpensive are great quality and roll great over carpet.

[Mark J]

Given that it will have to pull out of its parking spot for best access to the drawers, I wonder if a handle or strap on the side might be a welcome aid?

[Chestnut]

1 minute ago, Mark J said:

Given that it will have to pull out of its parking spot for best access to the drawers, I wonder if a handle or strap on the side might be a welcome aid?

That has yet to be seen. The height is about 12" below the desk which leaves a lot of room to access drawers while parked. The sides of the drawers are also only half the drawer front so it's easy to lift items out sideways.

[roughsawn]

On 3/8/2021 at 9:11 AM, Chestnut said:

 I was a bit frustrated and needed to break it down further to fit in the recycling can so i threw a hammer at it.

Now THAT is funny. Great to get a good laugh now and then.