Slide Out Closet for Tiny House

Perhaps one of the most controversial builds I've done of late is this closet.

Or more specifically, not the closet, but where the closet is located.

The closet is mounted on a sliding track, and slides across the bathroom, stored in the shower when not in use.  

Its an almost effortless motion to pull the closet out of the shower to access your clothing.  The closet then can slide over the toilet when the shower is in use for access to the bathroom.  After showering, the shower curtain is clipped over the shower head, preventing water from running into the closet.

This closet solution was perfect for my client, a single guy with a small amount of clothes who takes quick showers.  But many of you did not agree, concerned about moisture in the bathroom, or storing clothing in the same room as the composting toilet.  The key to creating a tiny house that works for you is custom.  In such a small space you have to do what works for you.  This sliding closet may not be the right storage solution for everyone, but I'm guessing there's a few of you who could roll - or should we say slide - with this set up, so I thought I'd share more details on how we built it in a blog post.

I built the closet out of 3/4" plywood, ripped into strips 15-3/4" wide by eight feet long.  The reason for this width is most clothing hangers are about 16" wide and you can get three 15-3/4" rips out of a 4 foot wide piece of plywood (once you factor in the saw blade width).  Also, the closet had to be narrow enough to slide past the shower head and the vanity light fixture in a 32" wide shower.

Once the strips are ripped, I treat them like 1x16 boards, just cross cutting for the sides and top/bottom.  I used a Kreg Jig to pocket hole the joints at the top and bottom.

To finish the front plywood edges, I built a face frame out of 1x2s and nailed and glued to the front.

On the back, I stapled and glued 1/4" plywood to the back edges.  I used 3/4" staples with my Ryobi AirStrike Crown Stapler.

It's just a simple plywood box, but the back and face frame are important to keep it square.

In the bathroom, I cut a box rail track to the length of the bathroom using a sawsall with a metal blade.  Then I drilled holes in the back of the box rail and screwed it to studs in the wall.  I used big wood screws.  NOTE: We went back and added a shim under the box rail to compensate for the angled ceiling so the box rail is hung level to the floor.

Then I used sliding door hangers that work with the box rail, sliding on to the box rail.

The hangers are screwed to the closet.  There was some fine tuning to get the hangers centered perfectly on the closet.

I know this closet isn't for everyone, but I loved how it turned out and how the rarely used space in the shower was maximized.  

If you want to see the build in action, check out the video -

And to see it finished in the tiny house, here's the full video tutorial -

Do share if you build, I'd love to know if someone else made this sliding closet too, and how it turned out, and how it functions for them.

XO Ana