Adding a closet gives you storage where you need it.
Adding a closet in your home can provide much-needed storage space, improve the functionality of a room or simply give you a new place to hang your coat. The design is simple, and the materials needed are easy to estimate, based on standard 8-foot ceilings and 4-inch-thick framed walls. The old carpenter's adage -- measure twice, cut once -- is applicable to this project. Purchasing the right materials in the right quantity goes a long way toward ensuring the ease of completing your new closet and door.
Instructions
1. Measure and lay out the dimensions of the planned closet on the floor with masking tape to get a visual representation of it. As a rule of thumb, standard clothes closets have a minimum interior depth of 24 inches.
2. Mark the desired door size and location on the front line of the masking tape.
3. Calculate the amount of framing lumber required. Multiply the full length of all the closet walls by 3. Include a 2-by-4-inch stud (92 1/4 inches long) for each linear foot of wall.
4. Determine the type and size of door you wish to have. Figure what size header you will need for the door opening. The header is a small wooden beam that supports the framing above the door opening. The rule of thumb is to use a 4-by-6-inch header for doors up to 30 inches wide, a 4-by-8-inch header for doors up to 48 inches wide and a 4-by-12-inch header for a door up to 10 feet wide, such as a large sliding bypass door.
5. Plan to cover the interior and the exterior of the new walls with for 1/2-inch drywall. Calculate the amount needed by multiplying the full closet wall lengths -- minus the doorway -- by the full closet wall height. Double this number to account for the inside and outside of the wall. Divide the resulting number by 32, which is the number of square feet in a 4-by-8-foot sheet of drywall. This gives you the number of full sheets of drywall needed to cover the closet walls.
6. Select the type of interior shelving you want -- such as wood or wire shelves, or a closet organizer system. Determine how much shelving you need, based on the inside dimensions of the closet after the drywall is installed, and how you plan to configure your shelves.
7. Plan on buying a passage-type lockset for the new door and two sets of door casing -- one for the interior of the closet and one for the exterior.
8. Check whether the room where you are installing the new closet has baseboard trim. If it does, you need two times the new closet's wall lengths of new, matching baseboard material. Be sure to subtract the door opening from the total.
9. Decide how you want the finished closet to look. For painting the finished walls and door, use the square footage calculated in Step 5 to estimate amount of paint and primer needed.
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