Closet in a loft in a tiny house - diy tutorial by Ana White
A few of you have been asking for more details on the loft closet we built for the Wild Rose Tiny House.
The homeowner wanted a simple closet system in the low ceiling in the loft with a few drawers. But we wanted to keep the closet system light weight and functional.
Given the space constraints, I think it turned out really well and will be very useful for the homeowner. I wish we had more space vertically for clothes to fully hang, but the homeowner was fine with perhaps longer items resting on the bottom of the closet in the hanging space.
The drawers ended up being very roomy too, perfect for smaller items. All in all, a great project that was easy and fast to build.
Since this one should definitely be customized to the space, I thought I'd tackle this one in more of a how we did it style, rather than a plan with specific cut list.
The first thing we did was build the center section. You don't want to go over 36" wide here because the top shelf will start sagging and drawers won't slide right any larger. We built the sides and shelf out of 3/4" plwyood ripped into strips 15-3/4" wide by 8 feet long, and then just cross cut from there.
Everything is pocket holed together with a Kreg Jig on the 3/4" setting, with 1-1/4" pocket hole screws and wood glue.
Now for the two sides with hanging clothing space - we just spaced outward with 1x4s no more than 48" as a wood closet rod will start to sag any longer and need additional support.
The backs of the side pieces were all notched out with a jigsaw so a continuous 1x4 could be screwed to the back for stability. When you do this make sure the drawer area is very square, or your drawers will not slide right.
For the drawers, cut a 1x6 or 1x8 or however deep your drawers are 1" smaller than the inside of the opening, since each drawer slide needs 1/2" clearance. The sides should be 1-1/2" less than the inside depth - should be 14-1/4" if your plywood is 15-3/4" wide. I kreg jig my drawers together and staple and glue the bottoms on.
I'm a big fan of euro style bottom corner mount drawer slides for three reasons -
1. Since the drawer slide is mounted under the bottom of the drawer, you can just staple the drawer bottom on without ever worrying about the drawer bottom falling out (as you might with side mount drawer slides).
2. Euro style drawer slides are easy to install and very easy to adjust and there is margin for error.
3. They are inexpensive and perfect for projects like this. A kitchen cabinet utensil drawer that is opened hundreds of times may warrant a pricer drawer slide, but for a clost that is opened once a day, these are perfect.
My go to drawer slides are these guys from Liberty -
Here's how they are installed -
You can grab them at Home Depot or on Amazon.
Do modify away, and please, share when you are done. Love seeing your projects!
XO Ana