The Loft Style Closet

One of the biggest issues you have to face in living in a small home is the lack of closet space. The obvious solution is to get rid of stuff, but even then you may still find yourself dreaming of a bigger closet. Even before we downsized we did not have walk in closets, but we did each have our own. So when we moved J whipped up some clothing rods for when we lived with my parents because their home, though quite large, does not have any closets because it was built in the 1800's. 

I am glad he invested in that because we used them again when we stayed in my brother's basement (no closet there), and again for the world's longest yard sale (as a display rack), and now we are using them again for our little apartment.

 I use the master bedroom closet, which is quite small, and J uses the pipe closet. He came up with this design on his own so it doesn't really have a name, but we've called it an open closet, the wall-less closet, and for this series I have called it The Loft Style Closet, because it's urban feel would go perfectly in a studio apartment or an industrial loft. 

If you are feeling handy and want to throw something like this together here are the supplies used 

Materials 

(2) 8 foot 1 1/2 inch threaded plumbing pipe that can be bought at Home Depot or plumbing supply house

(1) 3/4 inch threaded 6 foot plumbing pipe

(2) 1 1/2 X 3/4 T fittings

(2) 1 1/2 floor flanges  

Paint

Screws 

planks of wood  

The first thing you do is screw the 8 foot poles into the 6 foot one using the T fittings. 

Next attach your 8 foot poles to the flanges.

 In our case J welded them, but since welding isn't the most practical option for everyone you can use flanges that screw on. As shown here. 

The next step is to paint it, but this is optional. J used rust-oleum spray paint to make ours black.

At my parents house he was able to screw the poles right into the wood flooring, but there are a lot of situations where that isn't an option. In that case you can screw the poles onto a piece of wood to make it stand up on it's own.

  

Even when we do have our dream closets we will be hanging onto these because they have come in handy on so many occasions. 

What about you? Do you have your dream closet? I'd love to hear from you! 

For more of this series click HERE.