Closet do-it-yourself

 Closet do-it-yourself

As you know, in the modern market there are many furniture manufacturers that offer a wide range of products, for example, popular and necessary in the closet wardrobes. On the one hand, it is possible to purchase such an option in any store, having entrusted its assembly to experienced craftsmen. On the other hand, a thing made by itself is for the owner a much greater value and pride.

Let the maximum amount of time and effort be spent on this, but one cannot but agree that the wardrobe made by own hands will perfectly correspond to the household needs of the owner.

We are determined with the type

If you design the installation of the cabinet in the hallway, it is important to take into account the fact that in many apartments it is small, rectangular in shape. Unlike the swing doors of a conventional wardrobe, the sliding doors of the compartment will save space in the best possible way.

Saving free space is important in any room, not only in the corridor, but also in the bedroom, which should always remain a zone of comfortable rest and order. If the height, at the same time, is made up to the ceiling, the empty space will usually be applied with maximum benefit.

In the corner area of ​​the dwelling, depending on the characteristics of its total area, an unusual and spacious radius closet can be accommodated. Corner placement is advantageous in that the piece of furniture installed in this way will accommodate a lot more things than with a different version.

However, it is rather complicated to manufacture, so a beginner’s master is better not to take it, but to limit himself to a simple rectangular model.

The built-in closet can be installed in the case if the room has a niche or pantry. It will be functional, comfortable and aesthetic.In addition, it is much easier to make a closet from a pantry on your own than to make it completely: there are already walls, a ceiling and internal space. The main task is to determine the content of such a cabinet, properly plan the dimensions, drawing and course of action.

Materials

It is necessary to choose materials carefully, first of all thinking about durability, reliability and durability.

Tree

If we are talking about wood, then it is not suitable for creating a built-in wardrobe, because the moisture level in a niche or storeroom is much higher than in a room. Any tree will quickly begin to crack and lose its natural beauty. In extreme cases, you can use it to create small components and decorative elements, but with mandatory pre-treatment with a water-polymer emulsion or drying oil.

Drywall

Recently, a very popular material is drywall. However, professional furniture assemblers do not recommend it. This material is very fragile and very heavy in weight.

In addition, it must be attached on any solid basis.

Shelves made of drywall, quickly begin to "sag" under the weight of things, crack and deform. From it, you can create other pieces of furniture, but for the manufacture of high-quality closet, it is absolutely not suitable.

MDF and MDF

The best options are fiberboard, MDF or laminated chipboard. These materials have always been distinguished by durability and reliability, it is easy and simple to work with them, and humidity and temperature drops do not affect them. Large selection of markets and stores of various colors of laminated chipboard will allow anyone to choose the desired color.

An important point: in order to manufacture cabinets there is a certain standard for laminated chipboard with a thickness of 16 mm.

Plywood

Plywood is no less versatile and durable. It can also be laminated; it is possible to find its varieties on sale, which are distinguished by their resistance to water and insensitivity to high humidity, which is important when placing a wardrobe in a niche or a storage room.

Plywood combines both strength and malleability during processing, because it is made from soft wood. It should be remembered that when tightening the screws in it, it can be deformed, but this will not happen if you use washer-like gaskets.

Furniture Shields

The sliding wardrobe can be made of furniture panels. First of all, they are famous for external attractiveness and low price. The basis of this material based on natural tree species, such as oak, alder, birch. When creating furniture, boards are usually combined with plywood as follows: a frame and a facade of the structure are made of them, and the shelves and drawers are made of plywood.

Standard thickness - 2 cm.

From the old cabinet, which has served its time, you can make elements that may be necessary when creating a new one. Sometimes chipboard sheets in outdated furniture are extremely durable: unlike many modern materials, it is impossible to even screw in screws without first creating a special hole. In this case, the old but strong chipboard panels will fit perfectly into the cabinet as strong shelves.

If the appropriate material is already selected, it remains to purchase ready-made sliding doors for the future cabinet. Of course, you can make them yourself, but it will cost much more than the purchase of doors that are already ready for installation. It is necessary to find a good company engaged in the manufacture of sliding doors, and make an order there, indicating the size of the opening and the number of panels.

In order that sliding doors serve as long as possible, it is necessary to get a self-adhesive sealant. Its main purpose is not only fastening profiles in slots. If the seal is of good quality, it will prevent the penetration of dust, and the cabinet doors will move absolutely silently.

Description of the drawings

Before you start assembling any piece of furniture you need to create a certain scheme in the form of a drawing. It is necessary to carefully align the dimensions, with the obligatory indication of all the parameters both on the outside and inside the structure, while necessarily indicating the thickness of each partition.

When drawing up a drawing, it is important to follow certain size standards in advance: for example, it is recommended to leave the optimal distance between the shelves at 30-40 cm, and the depth of the drawer should be no more than 50-55 cm.

Before creating a drawing, it is necessary to determine the main characteristics that the future wardrobe will have:

  • height, width and depth;
  • mezzanine height, if planned;
  • how many doors, drawers and other departments will be in the closet;
  • what content is planned: boxes, crossbars, shelves, etc.

After this, a sketch of the future cabinet is drawn. With experience and ability to draw, the drawing can be done independently, simply using a sheet of paper. There is also a simple solution for those who are not strong in drawing: special computer programs, in which it will be enough to just enter certain data, and the computer will issue a ready-made high-grade drawing. The quality and accuracy of such a drawing is so high that with its help you can safely begin to assemble the cabinet yourself.

Further, a small guide is offered, with the help of which you can independently make a small built-in wardrobe in a small niche in the hallway.

Step-by-step instruction

Room measurements and calculation

First, with the help of a tape measure, three horizontal dimensions of the niche are defined outside: at the top, in the middle and at the bottom. Then the same three measurements are taken on the back wall. This is necessary in order to understand what size will have to cut out future shelves. Further, similar dimensions (in front and on the back wall of the niche) are removed vertically in height: the left edge, the middle and the right edge.

It helps to understand what the overall size picture will be.

It is important to remember that measurement errors are quite common. It is obsululov quality built houses and leveling walls. Write to the drawing should be the size with all the errors in order to make calculations as accurately as possible.

At this stage, you need to finally decide on the details of the cabinet. What and where will be located, how many sliding facades are planned to be installed, how many departments there are, will there be open corner shelves in the closet, do we need a visor with lighting.

Since we are talking about a small wardrobe, which is located in the hallway, you can immediately determine what and where to put. Street shoes can be simply put on the floor in a niche, without the use of shelves made of chipboard or other material. It is also advisable to think over the internal filling of the cabinet in advance: the number of compartments for clothes, drawers, shelves, and rods for hangers.

All measurements should be carried out necessarily taking into account the thickness of all materials used.

It is important not to forget to carefully dimension and size between the shelves. If the niche is a curve, then the shelves will have to be made with an allowance in order to precisely fit the dimensions of the walls.The dimensions of each part should be painted, taking into account the plastic edge (PVC, usually 2 mm).

Well, if the installation will happen quickly, without unnecessary fits.

Cutting and accessories

With a great desire, you can carve out the details yourself, but there is no need for that. Finished drawing is better to give to the production department, where all the components for the cabinet will be made exactly according to the specified dimensions. Therefore, the drawing should be drawn up as accurately and accurately as possible, and at a proven reliable furniture factory, all the necessary elements for the upcoming assembly will be sawn according to it.

As for the fittings, with its purchase now also there will be no problems: it is presented in a large assortment in large construction or specialized stores. Here is a sample list of what you might need in the manufacture of a simple cabinet built-in type:

  • brakes and screws,
  • gaskets for soft installation of self-tapping screws,
  • furniture corners (preferably metal),
  • bar for hangers with weight holders (if the cabinet is small, one will suffice),
  • hooks, clips for mounting shoe shelves.

Construction assembly and installation

Since this is not a cabinet, but a built-in cabinet, the top and side panels of which replace the walls, you can start right away by determining the space for the shelves. Several markings are made on the wall with a pencil, and the fixing of the shelves themselves is carried out with the help of mounting angles.

It is better if they are metal, not plastic: the first and durable, and look very aesthetically appealing. Corners are attached with dumb-screws and self-tapping screws.

If there are shelves in the cabinet that are longer than 800 mm, they need additional fastening, otherwise, over time, any material may bend under the weight of things. Therefore, the back wall of the shelf should be supported by metal corners.

The hanger-bar is fastened to the wall with the help of special round holders. In each of them there are three holes, and fastening to the wall is carried out by screws and self-tapping screws.

At the bottom you can install a mesh-type shoe shelf. It is attached using special hooks or clips, set to the desired level after a preliminary mark with a pencil of its location.

Then you need to fix the shelf on the side front walls with metal corners.

If there is a stretch ceiling in the room, in order to correctly combine such a ceiling and a wardrobe, you will need to put a mortgage between them in the form of a bar up to 100 mm wide.

Installation of doors with guides

As already noted, the ceiling is not always smooth and perfect. Therefore, the first priority when installing the top guide for sliding doors is to align it and install it clearly horizontally. This will require laying between the rail and the ceiling of the lining of various thickness.

You can make them from MDF. The resulting gap in the conclusion is closed with a frieze made of 8 mm thick chipboard.

Now you need to measure the height of the niche on the left and right in order to calculate the possible slope of the floor or ceiling, as well as blockage of the walls. Having established the difference in size, you need to again take the pads from MDF and put them between the guide and the ceiling. Only now, already through all installed gaskets, it is possible to finally fix the upper guide. Drill a hole in the ceiling, hammer in the dowel, then the guide is finally attached with screws to the ceiling.

When fitting a frieze, it is important to make allowances to fit all parts in size already during installation. Freeze to attach to the gap, mark the necessary lines with a pencil and cut along them.Glue the frieze to the guide can be using double-sided tape. In order for the tape to hold well, it is necessary to degrease the glued surface with alcohol beforehand. Then stick vertical strips of adhesive tape on the surface, remove the protective film from it and stick the frieze to the upper guide.

The bottom rail for the cabinet doors is also mounted on double-sided tape. This will ensure its smooth and smooth running - the doors will move silently, with minimal wear on the rollers. The doors themselves must be inserted into the upper and lower guides ready for use and adjusted.

Detailed instructions for assembling and installing compartment doors can be viewed in the next video.

Interesting solutions

In order to create a cabinet not to be limited to standard rectangular shapes, you can use creative ingenuity when working with such soft and pliable material as plywood. You can create a smooth and unusual shape of a shelf or other item of a piece of furniture by moistening a sheet of plywood with water and placing it on a special shape, a blank. Within 12-14 hours the sheet will get the desired smooth shape and will be ready for use.

In addition, there is the simplest and easiest way to attach shelves for the cabinet using the segments of the most basic plinth. MDF plinth has a high durability, sometimes not inferior in reliability to metal fittings. In order that such fixture of the shelf was not too conspicuous, a piece of plinth can be made a third shorter than the depth of the shelf, and its end should be cut obliquely.

The self-tapping screw, furthest from the edge of the shelf, in this case will have to be twisted from above, through the shelf shelf.

The use of stained glass technology for decoration

The door panels of the closet can be decorated using stained glass. The cost of making such facades is different, it directly depends on the degree of complexity of the technology used. In any case, inexpensive variants of stained glass design of the cabinet will look great, but on condition of their high-quality manufacturing.

The main types of stained glass windows, which are most often used for decoration, are three:

  • Classic stained glass. It will look best in a frame of wooden or metal frame. Glasses can be with any pattern or different colors.The process of making such a stained glass window is very labor intensive, which gives it both prestige and a rather high price.
  • Tiffany Its difference from the classic stained glass window is that it is possible to use this option if there is no frame on the facade. In this case, the picture is more intricate and original. Technically, it is no less complex than the classic, but aesthetically very beautiful. Even its apparent fragility may not be seen as a serious disadvantage compared to beauty.
  • Filler type stained glass. It is also called contour. One of the popular imitations of expensive Tiffany, performed on a large glass cloth. Such a stained glass window, due to its simpler manufacturing technique and low price, is the most popular among consumers. It is resistant to external damage and is very practical, which allows it to be successfully used to decorate the simplest versions of furniture.

Sandblasting drawings on the mirrors

If the facade of the closet is made in the form of a mirror coating or glass, you can put on it a beautiful sandblast pattern. This is an abrasive type of surface treatment with sand sprayed using a special apparatus under a certain air pressure.

This technology provides any furniture with unique and realistic drawings that have volume and texture. Once upon a time, when sandblasting machines had not yet existed, in the ancient Roman Empire, similar processing of glass was carried out manually using flat stone: they rubbed sea sand on the surface of the glass.

Sandblasting is characterized by a porous structure and, unfortunately, can easily get dirty. This is its only drawback, which can be overcome by protecting the surface of the pattern with a varnish or special solution, which consists of components from polymers.

Vinyl stickers

An excellent and easiest way to decorate the closet wardrobe, if there is no financial opportunity to order stained glass or sandblasting. Typically, these stickers resemble transparent wallpapers. At their production the special film is used. Thanks to its transparency and monophonic pattern, you can easily choose a sticker to match the color of any cabinet.

The old bored sticker at any time to change to a new one - it is easily removed, leaving no residue on the mirror or glass.

Thus, thanks to modern technologies, there is the possibility of applying many interesting solutions for both practical and aesthetic design of the wardrobe. Even with minimal financial investment, but with inventiveness and creative ingenuity, it becomes quite possible to carry out any projects, achieving independently excellent original results.

And if there is a desire, in addition to assembling furniture with your own resources, you can also master the technology of applying a simple stained glass window or pattern.

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Information provided for reference purposes. For construction issues, always consult a specialist.

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