DIY Pallet Wardrobe Plans
I am super excited to share with you our new pallet closet. I don’t know about you but we have quite a bit of “stuff” despite trying to keep on top of belongings and regularly clearing out.
We designed the storage space to suit our needs. The pallet wardrobe/closet runs along the wall opposite our bed.
Recycled pallets are a great source of free wood – we sourced our pallets by asking on local facebook pages. The pallets are used to create the pallet wardrobe/closet doors, with bought timber for the wooden structure.
Pallet Closet DIY
Materials and Tools List:
- 15 Recycled Pallets
- Pallet breaker – not essential but so worth the investment
- Wood for the frame, we used wood measuring 7 by 1cm and 4 cm square (Cm’s as we are in the UK)
- Metal shed door hinges
- Magnetic door closures
- Hanging rails (we repurposed rails from our old wardrobes plus an old broom handle)
- Metal ruler and set square
- Spirit level
- Nail gun
- Sander
- Drill
- Screws
Pallet Wardrobe/Closet Assembly
1. Start by building the frame. You need two identical structures for the back and front of the closet. Jared built these in situ, on the floor. There are three vertical pieces from which the doors will hang, plus two horizontal pieces for the top and bottom. It is important to take your time and sure all joins are true right angles (otherwise you will not have proper rectangles for your door space).
2. Attach the first frame to the wall, using raw plugs and long screws.
3. Lift the second frame up, attach to the first with wooden cross pieces positioned at the height of shelves, these are screwed in place. This forms the basic wooden structure of the wardrobe.
You can see in this photograph further horizontal pieces have been added to form the base of the top shelf.
4. Using cut lengths of pallet pre-sanded to form any shelves and the base of the wardrobe. These are attached to horizontal cross pieces placed at the height of your desired shelves. The slats of pallet wood are attached to the wooden frame using a nail gun. The shelves add rigidity and solidity to the structure.
5. Drill holes the size of the hanging rails (we repurposed rails from our old wardrobes plus an old broom handle) in wooden cross pieces. Attach the cross pieces (holding the hanging rails) to the basic frame.
6. Now to create wardrobe/closet doors. Cut two lengths of wood to the length of your door (we used wood measuring 7 by 1cm, with the doors being 8 cm shorter than the frame). Cut your pallet pieces and sand them to the finished width of the door. Consider the depth of the pallet wood – do you want them all the same depth? If like us you are happy with slightly different heights you need to ensure the pieces where your door hinges will be attached are the same depth. Decide on the position of your hinges and attach these slats of pallet first and then fill in around. You may need to trim some pallet pieces to fit.
This photograph is taken of the construction of the cupboard doors.
7. Hang your doors, attaching solid hinges.
8. Add magnetic door closures internally.
9. Add door handles, we have used small pieces of wood which are wood glued and nail gunned to secure in place.
10. Finish the sides of the wardrobe. Add beading within the frame so that you can fit slats of pallets snuggly to the frame.
11. Infill the top of the wardrobe frame with wood 4 by 4cm – this finished the frame all round.
All measurements are in cm's as we live in UK. Find out more at my detailed blog post DIY Pallet Wardrobe Plans.
Resources for this project:
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Whew! A whole lot of work! Incredible result!
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Nice result. I see folks use pallets all the time and wonder about the “health” of the pallets. Yours look in lovely condition. In US all I find are filthy, grease encrusted ick with who knows what has further stained the wood (rat droppings, chemicals?). I think you were fortunate to find such pristine wood. Me? I’d still scrub
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GORGEOUS
Cool idea and look...but....I hope you checked what was stamped on the wood? Depending on the mark, pallet wood can be treated with toxic chemicals to preserve it...I wouldn't want you to get sick...
where did you find pallets with such smooth wood or did you sand the “ heck” out of them?