Turn a closet door into easy storage

I'm always on the hunt for ways to make things around the house more organized.  In fact it makes me a little nuts when all of our belongings don't seem to have a place to be put away.  The front entry of our home as been an issue for me, because of this.  Coming home from school, the school bags and shoes get dropped a foot inside the front door, and then we spend the rest of the day hurdling over them to get in and out.  We have this nice closet right next to the front door, but for some reason opening the door to put these things away just doesn't happen.\

So I decided I wanted a shelf for shoes, book bags, hats, car keys, etc.  But I didn't want to lose the closet storage and I didn't want the shelf sticking out into the entry way (taking up space) so I created a hinged shelf.

 

I started with just an ordinary closet.  The door in place right now is just a crappy, hollow core door.  First I removed the door.  If you just wanted to take out the door and swap it for another one, you could lift out the hinge pins.  But we need the hole apparatus gone, so pull out your screw driver and remove the screws holding the hinge to the door frame.

Next you need to remove the door stop.  This is the thin piece of wood (approximately 1.5 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep that is nailed into the middle of the door frame.  It keeps the door from over closing.  But for this project it's going to get in the way, so it needs to go.

A cat's paw, or pry bar removes this quickly.  For mine it left behind some of the nails that must have been nailed into it from the other side of the door frame.  I don't want these scratching me or my kids when they get into the closet, so best to use a hammer and pound those back into the frame.

Finally, remove the trim around the door.  Our house was nicely equipped with the cheapest, crappiest trim so it certainly doesn't hurt my feelings when I have a chance to remove more of this.  First run your utility knife around the edge where this meets the rest of the frame to make it easier to remove it, and then use your pry bar to get under it and remove it with little-to-no damage to the wall and door frame.

The door frame is now ready for the shelf to go in,  I have, in the past, used solid wood shelves that I found an unfinished furniture stores.  But we don't have one of those near us now.  And I also really wanted the shelf to be a close fit to the door opening, so I built the shelf to fit this particular spot.  When measuring the shelf you want to use, first measure the width of the door opening.  You then need to be sure that the distance (on your shelf) between the front right corner and the back left corner is no bigger than this... allowing extra room for a hinge (so add about 1/2 inch) to the diagonal measurement of your shelf.  The reason to check this measurement, is when the shelf is installed and you wish to swing the shelf/door open to access the closet, the back corner farthest away from the hinge side is going to have to be able to clear the door frame.  Measure wrong, and you'll be stuck with a shelf that won't swing open, it will just be stuck in the door frame.

I built this shelf using some stock pine (it's a little naughty... hahaha, knotty) which is about 3/4" thick.  I used rabet joints to hold the shelves in place because it's super sturdy.  For the back I grabbed some beadboard wall panels.  You don't have to build the shelf yourself, but I do recommend solid wood as particle board shelves just don't seem to hold up as well over time.

The next step was to attach the hinges and install the shelf.  The door I removed only had 2 hinges.  For this I like the security of 3 hinges just because this thing is a lot heavier than that crappy "builder's special" hollow core door.  If you grab a set of hinges from Home Depot, make sure you grab some longer screws.  The "included" screws will work great for attaching the hinge to the shelf, but you really need something longer for the side of the hinge that attaches to the door frame because you want to send the screws past the door frame and into the wall studs for added stability/strength.

Once the shelf is in place, be sure to test it to make sure it closes all the way and when open the door doesn't move.  A door that keeps trying to close or keeps trying to open is a sign of a door that is not well hung.  As long as the shelf moves freely you can move to the next step of trim.

You can see in this picture that I have added some 1/4" thick plywood as the initial trim around the door.  This replaces the old crappy trim and has a flat surface so that nothing will get in the way of the shelf opening.  The low profile trim is also put into place to balance the trim on the left side of the door, aesthetically speaking.  You can also see in this picture that the trim around the shelf on the hinge side has a 45-degree angle.  This is done so that the door can swing open wider than if the edge was squared.  

Trim was added to the bottom and sides of the shelf piece, in addition to the angled piece shown above.  The trim pieces were quite wide because there were large gaps between the shelf and the wall on the top and the left side, that needed to be covered.  While trim could normally be nailed in place, these large pieces seemed to need a little more strength, but I didn't want them looking gaudy with big screws hanging out.  For this trim, I chose to use a counter-sink drill bit, and wood plugs to conceal the screws.

The countersink drill bit not only drills a pilot hole for the screw (to prevent splitting wood), but then removes more wood so that the screw head can be recessed deeper into the wood.  Premade plugs are available that fit right into this hole, or you can buy a plug cutter which is great if you want to make your own plugs out of the wood you are using.

So drill your hole, screw the trim in place, insert the plug and then sand the area until smooth.  Then paint away, or stain, whatever you wish.

The final steps with the shelf may vary depending upon how well your shelf is working and how much weight you intend to place on your shelf.

I fear my two boys will take turns climbing on the shelf at some point.  So I chose to install an anti-sag gate thingie.  This has 2 brackets, that you install at the upper corner closest to the hinges and the lower corner farthest from the hinges.  Then they are attached with a length of wire rope and a turnbuckle.  The turnbuckle allows you to twist it and tighten up the wire rope as needed to keep that lower corner from sagging over time.

I also installed a coat rack on the back of the shelf so the boys would have a spot for their jackets.  Make sure you do this after installing that anti-sag thing.

 

I also needed to create a mechanism to help the shelf close flush against the frame.  There was a slight twist in the top of the shelf that made it so that when the shelf closed, there was a 1/2" gap between the shelf and the frame at the top.  For this I used a gate latch, and then I created a cleat with a slight dip in it.  This allows the gate latch to run up this cleat and rest in the depression - thus keeping the top tighter against the frame - while still allowing the shelf to open easily.  Genius!

A few accessories later, and the shelf was done and ready for action.  Now I just have to convince my boys that they want to put their things on it... instead of dropping their gear in front of it.