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Design Dilemma Storage & Closet

Eliminate Closet Door in Small Office Closet?

2 years ago

Building house presently. Have a small workspace office in back of house (not a fancy office/den/study by front door). Right behind the entry door to the office I found a space and had them frame in a 2' x 2' storage closet.

The plans show a ridiculously narrow door only 1'4" wide. Builder said it would be a custom door and agreed it was too narrow. But also suggested eliminating it and get the savings back on what would be a custom sized door.

I'm thinking it's not a bad idea. The entry door to the office will be open 99.999% of the time which completely blocks the storage closet. I generally don't like doors if they are optional (I took the door off it's hinges in master closet in current house and stuck it in storage for the next owner).

The tiny 'closet' in this case would basically become a 2 feet deep bookshelf / storage nook. And I can still store unsightly junk in there as it won't be visible to me or anyone else.

I can either have the 2 x 2 space framed open or have them put small (2"?) wing walls at the opening. I'll probably still have the header overhead framed probably to 6'8" (most doorways are 8' in hose but this is so narrow I think going that way would look to tall/skinny)

And if I have them put in wing walls - any recommended width? (maybe future person wants to remodel a door in?)

thanks,

Comments (5)

colonialgp
2 years ago
From what I can gather this space sounds impractical. Hard to visualize without a photo. That said, instead of a door why not use a folding screen to block it.
HU-528228756
Original Author
last year
Here's an image. It's a small 2' x 2' storage closet. It will be 'hidden' by the (almost) always open office entry door.

Thinking of eliminating the storage closet door and leaving it open ... Thoughts?
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When you say sliding door do you mean a barn style door that slides along the wall surface of the room outside the closet? Or do you mean sliding bypass doors. I have to assumer with a 24" closet that you mean barn style sliders like this: There was a good thread on this a while back on the kitchen forum (of all places) Other thread
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We were faced with this exact question when we renovated last year. Our closet is 5x6 so we can hang on both sides but our ensuite is the same size as yours. What we were able to do however was to borrow a bit of space from the main bathroom and enlarge the ensuite shower stall. The plumbing for the ensuite shower stall backs onto the plumbing wall for the bath/shower combo in the main bathroom. We moved the main bathroom bath/shower stall down 16" taking over some room of an underused hall storage space and then enlarged the shower stall. Our GC said that because most people are doing away with bathtubs in ensuites (at least in our area) that a larger shower stall is of more value and it allowed us to keep our "walk-in" closet. We still only have one sink in the bathroom and there is no doubt it is still small. In the room that was left in the hall storage we just put in a bunch of shelves for storage of TP, kleenex, lightbulbs etc. Our house is a 1972 post and beam and people don't expect grandiose ensuite bathrooms in them so we thought this was a great compromise. Don't know if any of this helps but it might.
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hi Talley, I used birch 3/4th inch plywood. Then edged it with some trim molding. The trim is pine. All of the stuff came from HD, and most of the major cuts I had them do. The trim and a few boards I cut myself. For the trim, I used some wood glue and small finish nails. I should have been a teensy bit less liberal with the glue, because glue doesn't stain. If the glue gets on your boards, it won't stain as well in those spots. I did find that both the pine and the stain did stain up pretty well the same though. I attached the trim first, then stained and poly'd.
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Since you’re obviously trying to keep this project low-cost AND you have a sketchy contractor (I’m not a contractor and I immediately thought to do what PPF. advised in his first post, hence the comment I made about a solution literally being right in front of him!), you might just want to install floor to ceiling adjustable wooden shelving. Depending on your storage needs (what are they, btw—is this a master bedroom? Single or double occupancy?), you could put your stuff in pretty baskets or canvas totes.
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Liz H
last year
Can you make the adjoining closet bigger? If that’s a bedroom, it makes more sense to increase its size rather than having a tiny closet in the office.
btydrvn
last year
I agree, that two feet will be much more useful in a bedroom than an office…
decoenthusiaste
last year
How about retractable doors like they used to have on TV armoires? Here's a closet office with them.
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