The "next phase" of my long bedroom project was to hang my lightweight clothes hamper from the closet door. This allows me to keep the hamper parked in front of that door -- just about the only space for it -- and still get at the closet without having to slide it out of the way.
It's an aluminum frame with a mesh bag in it, so that's workable, at least as long as I don't load it up with wet towels.
I'd gotten as far as working out the bottom support -- a shelf hanging from ornate brackets of the general type I like to use where there's sufficient clearance -- but attaching top so the thing wouldn't go flying when I moved the door had me working through a series of unwieldy, ugly solutions. Then I realized one-hole conduit clamps would work nicely if I could find a size close enough to the tubes of the support frame for the hamper. Shaped like a question mark, the clamps are hidden by the mesh bag in the hamper and the "half-inch"* size was just right.
After this, I'll build either a big wardrobe/TV cabinet or a set of skinny shelves that will fit between my bed and the wall and hold another 11" shelf for storage cubes near the ceiling at the same height as the ones already along two walls. The big cabinet will be tricky; it's got to have doors to keep cats out of the clothing and the size means I'll need to use a different style of construction, 2 x 2 frames holding lightweight panels (maybe perforated masonite) for the sides and probably 1 x 3 frames and panels for the doors.
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* Conduit "trade sizes" are related to the inner diameter, but it's best to just accept them as relative designations and move on instead of getting too fussy over matching the size to a measurement.
In the UK in the 60s and 70s there were a great amount of books and articles on DIY "boxing in" with 2x2s and panels to create closets and hide e.g.: hot-water equipment (which was typically electric and/or an indirect storage tank on a loop from the 'boiler' that also handled space heating.)
ReplyDeleteI think for a closet&doors I might choose frame and muslin over using perforated masonite, ventilates just as well and looks nicer from the finish side -- although I suppose one can also use the pegboard simultaneously for its intended purpose with storage hooks and such, so there is a practical advantage to the pegboard. Think theatre flats, when tied to a wall they are actually quite sturdy. I find that cloth dropcloths are excellent source for cheap but sturdy muslin for this, although occasionally they come with the seams in really inconvenient places.
The cheapish decorative-fretwork MDF or masonite panels that one used to find in every hardware store and home center are unfortunately a thing of the past except from specialty suppliers, at least from my searching.
DOuglas2, the reason for masonite is to provide planar stability -- it sits in routed grooves like the panels in a panel door. Fabric would have to be wrapped and stretched to even approximate that, and it's a tricky process.
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