If you have a house with a basement, and you’ve always dreamt of having an extra closet that will allow you to maximize your home’s storage space, building a large walk in closet in your basement is a great idea.
Now, such a project may seem a bit too expensive and over the top at first, but the fact of the matter is that it is anything but.
With the help of this step-by-step guide, some basic tools and some materials you can easily find in any house depot, this will be a very easy and interesting DIY project. Simply choose an area of your basement where you wish to build your walk in closet and get down to work.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Clear out your basement
First and foremost, you’ll have to clean out your basement thoroughly before you start with your project. Get rid of all the clutter that’s been accumulating in your basement, so that you get a better picture of the available space you’ll have at your disposal.
After getting rid of the clutter, clean the ceiling, the walls and the floor. Fill in any potential holes in the walls and ceiling to make them nice and smooth. Once you’re done prepping the surface, apply some strong adhesive to the walls and stick insulation board pieces to ensure that your closet is properly insulated.
After that, even out the walls once more and finish them off with a nice coat (or two) of fresh paint.
Step 2: Decide on the size
The next step of your project will be deciding on the size of the closet you wish to create. Ideally, your new closet should only take up a portion of the available space in your basement, so that you have enough room left for any other future projects. Besides, you can easily tear this closet down and build an even bigger one once you’ve outgrown it.
So, decide on the size of your closet, measure everything thoroughly and try to come up with the overall design of the closet. Think about the length, width and height of your new closet, and organize your space to the smallest of details.
Finally, write all of your ideas and measurements down so you can take some time and assess if you’re fully happy with what you came up with before you actually move onto building.
Step 3: Mark out future closet space with a piece of chalk
If you’ve decided that you’re fully satisfied with your design, grab a piece of chalk and mark out – as precisely as possible – the space that will be occupied by your future closet.
That way you will get a better picture of how big your closet will actually be and you’ll also see if you need to make any adjustments to make it fit the space better.
Step 4: Frame the closet
Once you start building, you should – of course – first assemble the main frame of the closet. Use support beams to make the frame and make sure they’re safely and firmly installed.
Next, mark the parts of the closet on the frame, so that you know if and where you’ll need to add some additional support. Put the base plate of the closet in its proper place, and following the same pattern position the heather plate. Make sure that everything is firmly screwed into place to avoid having your new closet collapse on you.
After that, add some inner and outer walls made of plywood or cork.
Step 5: build drawers and doors
Now that your closet stands firm and steady, you can move onto building drawers and putting them into place. If you have any small cabinets in your closet, you should also make doors for them to match the drawer fronts.
Alternatively, you can also simply install hanging racks in your closet and add refurbished vanities and chests of drawers you’ve previously thrifted or decided to repurpose, instead of making all of it from scratch.
Once you’re done building your new walk in closet and are happy with the outcome, you can move onto organizing and filling it up.