As happens with 16 –year old girls, my daughter has run out of closet space… Rather than clean, or discard, or whatever, she asked how she can get MORE closet space. Well, being the ingenious father that I am, I came up with a solution that only took away a small amount of her room without building anything big. Since I could only find similar things to what I wanted to do, I put all that searching the Interwebs to good use and decided that I needed to make this into an Instructable – My First Instructable in fact!

My thoughts were something open, and something simple. A rod from the ceiling would make it perfect,
since she seems to always have things on the floor anyway. Not just any rod would do though…

Step 1: Gather Stuff and Loose Fit...

So I headed to my local Menards, and started looking for parts. I decided on ½ pipe for the drop rods and ¾ for the actual rod, to give it a bigger feel. So I picked up the end connectors and went with an 18” drop to the ½ to ¾ elbow. A 36 inch piece connects these.

Step 2: Next...

Getting there.. Dry fit and check things before final installation. Time to get the ladder and get upstairs...

Step 3: Board on the Ceiling

I first attached a 48” piece of pallet board to the ceiling. This was secured with 3” drywall screws (what I had handy) and a couple of washers into the ceiling joists. The 48” board turned out to be a bit short when I actually got it up there and the end screws went in at an angle, to be sure that the entire board is attached. We’re not talking chin-up bar here, but it will be constant weight.

Step 4: Puttin' It All Together.

After cleaning the pipe with Brake cleaner to get rid of all the oils involved in the manufacturing process, I attached it to the Pallet Board with 4 - 1 inch screws at each side. (Again, they were what I had handy.) It was able to hold my 200+ pound weight when I did a little hold test…

I was able to clean up and finish JUST before she walked in the house. She was soooo excited to have this extra space.

On reflection, there are several things I would do to make this nicer, and more secure. Staining a piece of hardwood, replacing screws with Lag Bolts, etc.. This was a quick and small budget item. Maybe version 2.0 will be nicer – I’ll update if I ever do it.

Thanks for checking this out!