Closets with sliding barn-style doors

We had a huge room, taking up the whole second story, with no closets. It was time to build his and her closets so we could put some actual use to the spare bedroom downstairs.

Step 1: Pick Locations For Your New Closet(s)

In our case the 2 corners were the best place to put the closets. At first we were going to put them in the 2 corners on each side of the window in hopes to create a bench area between the closets and under the window. Be sure to identify all outlets and light switches before building, in order to avoid relocating light switches we had to abort the window plan. no complaints here... 

Comments

[dreiseratops]

Nice work. Looks great!
Are they quiet along the floor?

[mjp5147]

I wouldn't say they are quiet but it's not to the point where its been a bother. I really thought about hanging them without the wheels but I couldn't come up with a good way to keep the doors from swinging and hitting the walls. Maybe if I would of put a wheel on the wall for the door to slide across!? Always room for improvement...

[Dr.Bill]

New Skateboard Wheels all around would have been nice. They leave no marks, roll smooth and have a small footprint eliminating marks on the floor and wall.

[woodNfish]

Those are nice doors. I've been considering sliding barn doors for some garage storage but the racks and rollers are ridiculously expensive. This looks much more economical. Since you built the closet from scratch you could have added framing pieces between the wall studs where you intended to attach the bar supports. This is common in bathroom walls to hand towel bars and gives you a much stronger support than drywall with anchors.

My only other comment is you unconventional framing grid technique means that if you ever want to put an outlet or wall switch on one of those closet walls you will have to open up the drywall and drill through the horizontal framing members to get the wiring in. Some building codes require at least one horizontal member in between wall studs as fire blocks, but they aren't needed in the type of closet walls you have built.

[mjp5147]

Thanks for the feedback! I did initially add framing pieces for the wall studs as you can see on the top to the right and left of the doors. Unfortunately at that time the plan of how the bar was going to hang on the wall and still allow for a door to slide was premature.

And actually the unconventional framing method was all part of the plan. Before deciding to go to IKEA, which was when the frame was built, I had initially planned to put shelves along all of those horizontal framing members. This wasn't the case for the "her" closet since she found everything she wanted at IKEA but on the other closet the framing all served a nice purpose and resulted in some sturdy shelving. Electricity won't be an issue because there are ceiling lights right outside the doors of the closets which aim into the closets. And also I have some nice motion lights that will go on the inside above the doorway.

[woodNfish]

Okay so you are using the horizontal pieces to support shelves, that is good, but the next time you build a wall like this you may consider turning the boards (2x4) so that the wide part (4") side is to the drywall where you want to hand your shelf. That will leave an open gap inside the wall between your horizontal shelf support and the opposing drywall board where you can run a wire if you need to without having to open up the wall.

[mjp5147]

That's a really good point! Thanks for discussing, it's always nice to learn...

[thebeatonpath]

YES! This came at a perfect time!

[bsheffie]

I would love to see the doors when you have stained them! Great Job.

[ceanes]

Wonderfull keep doing.

[kenbob]

Love these. Thanks for posting!

[webman3802]

Beautiful work. This is actually the almost exact same design that we're planning on using for our pantry doors. Were your eye hooks screws or bolts? I'm thinking if we use bolts with a nut and washer on both sides where it passes through the 2x4, we can put the eye hooks on the bar, install the bar, and then attach the doors. The height of the hooks could then be fine-tuned by adjusting the nuts.

[mjp5147]

I think you have the right eye-dea! haha. The hooks that I used were screws and I do lack the option of removing the hooks from the doors. One reason that I went with the screw route was because I didn't want to jeopardize splitting the 2"x4"s by drilling straight through them. I think your plan will work out to benefit you especially when it comes to fine-tunning.

[foobear]

Nicely done. I would think the wheels would make the doors roll more smoothly than if they were just hanging. What was the total cost (-Ikea)?

[mjp5147]

They do roll pretty smoothly and you don't have much of that metal on metal rubbing noise as it would if they were just hanging there. The IKEA trip was under $150. The wood for doors and all the hardware was more like $250