• Home
  • About
    • Personal Posts
  • Privacy
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Checkout
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
Sawdust Girl®

Sawdust Girl®

Renovation, cabinet building and woodworking plans and tutorials. Build like a Girl®

  • My Home
    • Clinton TN House
      • Clinton TN House in Progress
    • Maryville TN House
      • Maryville TN House Tour – Completed Rooms
      • Maryville TN House in Progress
        • Basement
        • Basement Storage Closet
        • Bedroom Office
        • Craft Room
        • Dining Room
        • Entry
        • Garage
        • Guest Bedroom
        • Hallway
        • Jack and Jill Bathroom
        • Kitchen
        • Kitchen Entry
        • Laundry Room
        • Library
        • Living Room
        • Loft
        • Madison’s Room
        • Master Bedroom
        • Master Closet
        • Pantry
        • Porch
        • Powder Room
        • Wes’ Office
    • Illinois House
    • Calderwood Cottage
  • My Workshop
    • Clinton Workshop
  • Build & Breakfast
  • Cabinet Making 101
    • Cabinets
    • Doors
    • Drawers
  • Projects and Plans
    • Countertops
    • Beds
    • Benches
    • Bookshelves
    • Desks
    • Gift Ideas
    • Holiday
      • Christmas
      • Halloween
    • Home Accessories
    • Kids
    • Kitchen Cabinets
    • Lockers
    • Nightstands
    • Organization accessories
    • Recipes
    • Sewing
    • Tables
    • Vanities
    • Wardrobes
    • Woodworking
      • Wood Finishing
    • Workshop
    • Workshop Storage and Organization
  • Remodeling 101
    • Baseboard and Trim
    • crown molding
    • Demolition
    • Door and Window Casings
    • Door Installation
    • Drywall
    • Electrical work
    • Flooring
    • Home Maintenance
    • Painting
    • Plumbing
    • Resources
    • Safety
    • Tile
    • Wall and Ceiling Treatments
  • Sawdust Squad
  • The Sawdust Diaries
    • Andrea
    • Ava D.
    • Beckie F.
    • Cara C.
    • Courtney B
    • Fawn T.
    • Jenn D.
    • Kelly C.
    • Kristy K.
    • Lara T.
    • Malisa B.
    • Marnie D.
    • Robin C.
    • Val F.
  • Tools
    • Products
    • Tool Reviews & Overviews
    • Inspiration & Ideas

Marnie’s Custom Built-in Closet – 1

Marnie D.

Hello, my name is Marnie – and I am a home renovation addict! Renovating houses is my favorite hobby; I get such a rush out of seeing a room totally transformed by paint, flooring, and some trim. Although many people think its weird (including my husband), it’s nice to share my story here with all of you who share my affliction!  🙂

 

I have renovated and sold several houses for resale, but for the first time I am renovating a house that we plan to stay in – SO FUN! We decided to start with my daughter Kate’s bedroom. She loves the beach and decided she wanted a beach themed room using the colors navy, turquoise, and orange.

 

So, we kicked the poor kid to the guest room, and painted the walls, installed new lighting, installed pocket closet doors, installed hardwood floors, added new door and window trim, and created a “beach shack” feature wall. Here is the before….

 

Kate's Room (1 of 88)

 

…..and the after.

 

Kate's Room (48 of 88)

 

I love the way it turned out so far! But, I had one final stumbling block – the closet.

 

Kate is a lucky girl to have a walk-in closet in her room. However, it was on the smaller side and it had totally inefficient storage.

 

Kate's Room (4 of 88)

I knew I wanted custom closet organizers, but did not want to pay thousands of dollars to have them professionally installed.  Although I have experience with trim, for some reason the thought of actually assembling something together scared the bejeebus outta me!

 

Enter Sandra to the rescue! Like so many before me, I saw her post about the custom built-in closet she built in her master bedroom and I was HOOKED! When she then said that she was taking on clients for personal coaching sessions I jumped at the chance to learn from her!

 

For our first consultation, I sent her some pictures and the dimensions of the room.

 

Kate's Room (49 of 88)Kate's Room (40 of 88)

 

 

We had an initial Skype session and before you know it – BOOM! – I had actual plans and instructions to get started. I set out to Home Depot to buy supplies feeling – I’ll admit it – a little “I got this” cocky. However, within my first 5 minutes in the screw aisle, my hubris was quickly beaten into submission. Although my instructions were pretty specific, I still – for the life of me – could not figure out which screws to buy! I texted pictures back and forth with Sandra in the middle of the store desperately seeking the magic box! Finally…..DING DING DING WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

 

Kate's Room (44 of 88)

The 1 3/4″ Spax MDF screws. As I would soon find out – totally worth the frustration – I love these babies. I would marry them if I could.  🙂

 

Next off to the lumber aisle to load up my MDF sheets. I knew they would be heavy, but I didn’t think they would be SUPER MEGA BIGGIE SMALLS  & HEAVY D  H-E-A-V-Y! Luckily I was at Home Depot early and was able to quickly find someone to assist me in getting the MDF into my car.

 

Finally, I made it home with all my supplies – still feeling motivated in spite of my right-off-the-bat setbacks and ready to go. I unloaded the sheets into the makeshift workshop I set up in my garage.  I learned about the Kreg Rip Cut jig from other Sawdust Girl posts – so I had previously purchased one and set it up. I was ready – LET’S CUT SOMETHING! I measured twice per Sandra’s cut list, and cut the first sheet. Cutting was easy peasy with the Rip Cut and I was feeling fine when I was finished and I had a stack of cut MDF ready to go.

 

I measured the cut pieces to make sure everything was cut properly – when my satisfaction quickly turned into horror as I realized that every single piece was off by about 1/8 of an inch. But I measured! TWICE! What could have gone wrong? FUDGE! (Only I didn’t say fudge…). Finally I tried some sample cuts with the Rip Cut and realized that the tool was not calibrated properly. Even though I followed the instructions – I should have double checked the Rip Cut calibration before I started hacking away at my beautiful sheet of MDF.

 

LESSON LEARNED – Along with measuring twice and cutting once, make sure tools are properly calibrated and make a test cut PRIOR to cuts on actual material.

 

Although I was so bummed out that I already wasted a sheet of MDF, I shook it off as best as I could and continued cutting the rest of the sheets I had left. Now that I had everything set up properly, the cut pieces were exactly the right measurements. I sent Sandra an email to tell her about my “progress”, and went to bed with only a pile of MDF and a TON of sawdust all over my garage floor to show for it…

 

Kate's Room (53 of 88)

…..but still confident (kind of) that after another trip to Home Depot in the morning I would be much more successful on Day 2!

 

September 11, 2013 · 8 Comments

« On Trend Halloween Decor: part 2
Queen Platform Bed with Storage -Kristy Collection »

Comments

  1. Dixie Dobbins says

    September 11, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    OMG You are a girl after my own heart! I just found your blog and this post and laughed outloud. So I am not the only one out there like this! Love it. Just curious what you used as the “BOARDS” on the wall? And can you show how you did the trim on the door Jam? Love the top part of the door jam. Thanks!!! Ill be back!

    Reply
  2. Courtney says

    September 11, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Yes! Love SPAX! Hate calibrating the rip cut! Can’t wait to see how your project progresses, but if it’s anything like the rest of the room, it will be beautiful!

    Reply
  3. Chantelle - ThousandSquareFeet says

    September 11, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    Hmmm, my daughter has a closet about this size. I am interested in seeing what Sandra came up with for you!

    Reply
  4. kim massa says

    September 11, 2013 at 5:56 pm

    Love your enthusiasm! My bedroom walk in closet is on my ‘to do’ list also. Looking forward to seeing your progression.
    Everybody loves ‘Spax screws’, I guess I will have to search them out.

    Reply
  5. Fawn Teresi says

    September 11, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    Cant wait to see what it turns out to be! Love the room so far! 🙂

    Reply
  6. Jackie says

    September 12, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    Hi- good luck! The rest of the room looks great! What’s the funky green table in the garage?

    Have fun!

    Reply
  7. Marnie DeVries says

    September 13, 2013 at 11:21 am

    Hi Jackie! That is a Benchmark table (http://www.benchmarktable.com) – I love it! It has slats on the top to help with cutting – along with a lot of other cool stuff. It is not cheap – but I think the convenience of using it is worth the money. Thanks!

    Reply
  8. Lino Slonecker says

    December 24, 2017 at 4:24 am

    Stunning. I used these tonight on the cover of a new photo album I’m starting. I blogged about my project and linked to this post. I can’t believe I’ve never stumbled on you before!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

New Post email notification signup

You Subscribed!

Legal Stuff

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Disclosure

Recent Posts

  • Lodge Update – Floors, Cabinets, Countertops, and Appliances
  • Lodge Kitchen Cabinet Progress
  • Halloween Mad Gab – Halloween Party Ideas
  • Concrete Backsplash or Vertical Wall Treatment
  • Building and Installing a Giant Faux Beam on the Ceiling

Disclaimer:

Although it is my intention to provide accurate plans and clear instructions, not all plans have been tried and tested. Using plans or information found on SawdustGirl.com indicates that you agree with the Terms of Use policy and will accept full responsibility for the process and outcome of any project you attempt. All plans are for private use only. Plans and information published on SawdustGirl.com may not be reproduced, republished or distributed in any manner without written permission from Sandra Powell, Sawdust Girl. Actual projects built using Sawdust Girl plans may be published on your own site without instructions or "tutorial" as long as you provide a link to my original post with full post title or "SawdustGirl.com" as link title.

Copyright © 2022 · anchored theme by <a target="_blank"