Finding a closet is not the easiest exercise. I had numerous wardrobes, small, large, clothes rails – but the optimum had never been there. Either the space felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of the closet, or the closet for undersized clothes. Sometimes there was not enough hanging space, sometimes the drawers were too small for the amount of socks and tights.
I’ve been looking for inspiration on Pinterest forever. I always liked the hanging branches, which almost everyone has stumbled over, but somehow they don’t seem practical enough to me. Just the thought that some wood would wear out with every use and that small pieces of wood would repeatedly fall into the clothing traps – somehow that was not clear. Then I discovered them, all kinds of construction with pipes. Pipes are resilient and stable and can be flexibly expanded thanks to connecting pieces. So a plan slowly developed and after a bit of tinkering and measuring, the idea of my perfect wardrobe was made of pipes.
The perfect DIY wardrobe
I already said goodbye to a regular wardrobe in my previous apartment because there was simply no wardrobe that met my requirements. I wanted:
- Storage space
- sufficient hanging options, especially for dresses and blouses
- have the floor free
- something space-saving that doesn’t dominate my bedroom
- a compact “pack size” if I move again
- a solution for a tight budget
When no normal wardrobe met these requirements, I had to get creative and thought: Then I’ll just build it myself. Because: All of these requirements are met by a DIY wardrobe made of pipes. Now you are probably wondering what you need for it. Here is the shopping list.
DIY wardrobe made of pipes: shopping list
- 6 tubes of 1m
- 4 tubes of 20cm
- 4 90 ° angles
- 4 tees
- 4 wall mounts
- 2 short threaded connectors on both sides
- Hemp fibers
- Matching screws and dowels (if in doubt, get advice from a hardware store)
- You can find all of this in every hardware store in the sanitary and heating department.
Tools and accessories for the DIY wardrobe
If you do not do a lot of manual work or regularly implement DIY projects and are accordingly well equipped with tools, here is a small list of things that are additionally needed or that make your work easier:
- Drill or cordless screwdriver with drill function (depending on the nature of the wall. Concrete walls are not possible without a drill or an impact drill)
- Rubber hammer / hammer to get the dowels into the wall
- screwdriver
- Spirit level
- pencil
- Wall detector to find or bypass water and power lines
Structure of the wardrobe
My tip: build the cabinet for two. You can do it on your own, but that requires strength, stamina, time and some experience. Here is my step-by-step guide, with which I have expanded a total of 4 such cabinets:
- Screw the construction together first lying on the floor: I started on the sides and then gradually worked my way around – but there are many ways to Rome. Test yourself, it’s a bit like the house of Santa Claus, which can also be drawn in many ways;)
- Some threads may feel a little loose or shaky, especially the T-pieces that you want to align to a specific position for the cross connections. Here I used hemp in the thread to stabilize these places.
At the very end, you screw the wall fasteners onto the pipe construction and align them so that the flat sides that are screwed to the wall are all level - Your helping hand now lifts the pipe construction and presses it against the wall where the construction should hang. You align it so that it just hangs using a spirit level. Then you draw the drill holes with a pencil.
- Drill the holes at the previously marked locations and push the dowels in.
- Now you need your helper again, who lifts the pipe construction against the wall again so that you can screw it tight. Before you attach clothes, check again that everything is hanging stably.
Overall, it was easy to screw the construction together and attach it to the wall, but I would recommend not doing it alone. I stood on a ladder balancing in between and tried to align the pipe construction with one hand while holding it in the water and parallel to drawing the boreholes. Apart from the fact that the whole thing looked quite dangerous: it was too. And exhausting on top. So: With two more helping hands it is much easier.
The complete time was all in all at 1.5 hours. But you shouldn’t forget that my walls were easy to work with and there were no surprises. My tip: Get a line finder in advance to find lines, electrical and water lines, so that there are no nasty surprises. Nothing is stupid than having to report to the landlord because you have pierced a power line (and it is also quite dangerous.)
Cost of a wardrobe made of pipes
All in all, I paid around 100 euros for the pipes, screws and dowels. The prices vary a bit depending on the hardware store and also depend on which dowels you need. Simple all-purpose dowels have been used for the walls in my apartment, but it is best to get advice from the hardware store if you are unsure. Nothing would be more annoying than if the entire pipe construction, including your clothes, comes towards you again and tears nasty holes into the wall. Most of the time, the landlords can also provide information about what kind of walls you have, or you have expert friends.
The cabinet option I built hangs completely on the wall and does not touch the floor. That’s why the entire weight hangs on the wall. There are other pipe constructions in which the weight is distributed to the wall and floor. However, our apartment is quite crooked, so I could not have done without documents under the floor attachment, which compensates for the unevenness of the floor.
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