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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. Our bedroom had turned into a bit of a cluttered space. We discussed storage solutions, built-in wardrobes, IKEA wardrobes, and my husband sketched out pallet wardrobe designs.

The beauty of designing and building a pallet wardrobe means you can meet your needs in your space. Plus of course its great to use recycled materials as opposed to new resources (re the planet), and it saves you money! The cost of our purpose-built storage £450 as opposed to costed IKEA at £900. Plus it’s a fun challenge to make cost-effective pallet furniture pieces.

Diy pallet wardrobe plans

We designed the storage space to suit our needs. The pallet wardrobe/closet runs along the wall opposite our bed. My side of the wardrobe plans are for double hanging space for skirts and tops, a single hanging space for dresses, shelves for sweaters, and baskets for underwear. Centrally a cupboard with a shelf, with a television and a further shelf above. For my husband, he has a double shirt hanging space and shelves. The additional shelves by building high wardrobes give great additional storage capacity and meet all our storage requirements.

pallet wardrobe/closet DIY

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.

But before we start how do we know if the recycled pallets we have sourced are safe to use?Some pallets have been exposed to a chemical treatment that makes them inappropriate for use in home projects or have toxic chemicals on them. Most pallets have a stamp marking on them which advises you how it has been treated. Check out this informative article How to know if your pallet is safe to use. I highly recommend buying a pallet breaker – the video is a very brief snapshot of the build – which I am sharing because it shows just how useful a pallet breaker is!

Pallet Wardrobe Plans
not to scale

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 brrom 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 pallet wardrobe. 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).

DIY Pallet Ideas

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.

Extraordinary Wood Pallet Furniture

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.

pallet cabinets and wardobes
pallet closet project ideas

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.

pallet closet ideas

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.

hinged pallet made doors

This photograph is taken of the construction of the cupboard doors.

7. Hang your doors, attaching solid hinges.

how to make a wardrobe out of pallets

8. Add magnetic door closures internally.

pallet wardrobe diy

9. Add door handles, we have used small pieces of wood which are wood glued and nail gunned to secure in place.

diy wood pallet wardrobe

10. Finish the sides of the wardrobe. Add beading within the frame so that you can fit slats of pallets snuggly to the frame.

pallet wood wardobes

11. Infill the top of the wardrobe frame with wood 4 by 4cm – this finished the frame all round.

Note we chose not to add a roof to the pallet wardobe/closet as they virtually reach the ceiling. for our purposes, we knew the top shelf is only going to hold items in vac bags so dust is not a concern.

I thought it would be helpful to share an additional photograph of the construction, as it is helpful to see the base wooden structure. Once the triple wardrobe was built, the frame for the second wardrobe was constructed and installed with the tv unit being fitted inbetween.

pallet wood furniture

As you can see due to limited storage capacity items were housed in the wardrobe as it was built!

Learn how to make your own DIY pallet wardrobe/closet with step by step instructions

This multifunctional pallet project solves all our storage needs, acts as a stand for the tv, adds lovely wooden texture and detail to our bedroom. The cupboard under the telly houses all our winter blankets, a box for Christmas gifts, hot water bottles, my son’s wet suit, there’s so much bedroom storage space!

The most pleasing aspect of the beautiful pallet wardrobe, how relaxing I find our bedroom, it feels like a grown-up designed space. Who knew recycle wood pallets could be so transforming in a space?! I highly recommend taking the leap to make awesome wood pallet furniture.

Looking for more DIY Pallet Ideas? 

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Diana Harrison

Saturday 20th of November 2021

Most impressive and aesthetic. Well done Vicky's husband. I also love your patchwork, denim bedcover and curtain which must be your work, Vicky.

Vicky

Monday 22nd of November 2021

Thanks so much, they are my work! I am so fortunate to have a practical husband who enjoys a DIY challenge.

MADELINE l NEWTON

Friday 19th of November 2021

these really look great ...wow ..great idea ....love it ...

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