We had a
motley mess of a game room closet in our family room for a while! That
needed to change!
When we
finished the basement family room, we used shelving cabinets that we already
had, just to get by. Definitely a lot of wasted space and well, it looked
horrible!
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Before…. Of course! |

There was
NO staging to make that look worse! That was really what it looked
like! ARG!
For those
of you who love to read the end of book first, here is the final result!…..
Built-in closet shelving with adjustable shelves topped with crown molding!

A Challenge
We were
thrown a challenge when the contractor finished the basement. He forgot
to put in a return for the HVAC! We completed the basement in two phases for
financial reasons. The first phase was the living space and the second phase
was installation of the HVAC unit. Unfortunately, we didn’t even realize
the return was missing until the HVAC company told us!
The only
real option we had was to put a return vent in the game closet which is next to
the HVAC closet. This meant we could not have a normal door on the game closet
since it creates a vacuum in the closet. No fun until a room
implodes, I suppose? NOT! So, we needed to remove the
door.
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Lame HVAC vent! |
I did
price louvered interior doors which would have allowed a door to be used, but I
could not find one that I could justify buying. And, that option would
not fix the poor use of the space.
I always
start my projects with old school graph paper. I designed a few
options and decided to fix the eyesore the closet had become!
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I always start my projects with old school graph paper. |
Project Details
In my
design, there are 3 vertical panels. One on each side of the back wall and one
on the left side of the left wall. There will be adjustable L-shaped
shelves. The L-shaped shelves will be joined with a “fixed joint”.
Starting
with the back wall, I cut out the baseboard.

I wanted a
kick plate under the bottom shelf, so I notched out the vertical
sections. I chose 3″ high and about 3″ deep for the kick
plate. I should have used my jigsaw for this cut, but the multi-tool
worked fine.
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A perfect fit for the cut baseboard! |
My initial
design was to use 16″ deep shelves on both the left wall and the back
wall. But, when I put the front vertical panel in place (the left side of
the left wall), it looked so wrong. When you looked into the
closet, your eye went straight to the side panel. So, design change on the
fly…..
In the
next photo, you see the updated depth of the left wall panel at 12″. I left the
bottom shelf in place for this photo so you can see the difference. 16″
was just too deep for the left wall.

To trim
that vertical panel, I ripped the panel down to 12″. I LOVE the laser on the
Ryobi saw! It made the job so easy!
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To trim the vertical panel, I ripped the panel down to 12″. I LOVE the laser on the Ryobi saw! It made the job so easy! |
In the
next photo, you can see the gap at the ceiling. I wanted to put crown
molding at the top and wanted to have the “ceiling” of the built-in at the
bottom of the crown molding.
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Much better! Left panel is now 12″ deep. Back panel is 16″ deep. |
Fixed Joints
To join
the fixed joints, I used the Kreg Jig Jr. If you are not familiar
with the Kreg Jig Jr, it’s VERY easy to use and eliminates the need
to use (and see) cleats!
The
instructions included with the Kreg Jig Jr are very detailed. If you are
using the Kreg Jig Jr for the first time, do a dry run using scrap wood first
and you should be good to go!
The only
issue I had with the Kreg Jig Jr was when I tried to use the peg hole
fillers. The screws and the jig kit are great! The problem I had
was the peg hole fillers don’t fit the drilled hole and were ….well. a
pain. I ended up chiseling them out and filling the holes with wood
filler. It was easier and resulted in a cleaner look than the pegs.

Fixed joints using the Kreg Jig Jr.
What do with that Door Frame!
Since I
couldn’t have a solid door on the closet, I wanted some flexibility in the
future in case I ever did want to install an interior louvered door. In
the meantime, I didn’t want to see the old hardware. So, off with the
hardware!
I
covered the gaps with new trim and filled the remaining gaps with
paintable caulk. The trim is removable if I change my mind later.


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New trim covering the gaps caused by the missing hardware |
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A little caulk covers the remaining gaps! |
Adjustable Shelving
I
designed this closet to have L-shaped shelves. I didn’t want to use a
solid sheet of plywood for the shelves since it would produce too much
waste after cutting. So, i cut the shelves for the back and for the side and
joined them at an L using the Kreg Jig Jr as I did above.
I
love flexibility in closets! To make the shelves adjustable, I used the
Kreg Shelf Pin Jig. This was my first project using the Kreg Shelf Pin
Jig. Once I got a rhythm going, I found it easy to use.
Final Reveal!
I finished
the top off with crown molding and added 1×3 trim to the end panel to “dress it
up”.






After
filtering out what to keep-toss-donate, I loaded it back up. I was
also able to filter through my son and step-daughters closets and add more to
this Game Room Closet!



I painted
the HVAC vent to help it “disappear”. I may add art work to the
side wall, but other than that, it’s DONE! FINALLY!
This
project added so much square footage to the closet! And I LOVE how the
crown molding and side panel trim and the kick-plate add a polished look to the
closet! It’s no longer a sad eyesore!
Thanks for joining me on my journey!
I’m
working on the design for my next project, so stay tuned!
Enjoy More!

Like the idea? I would be honored for you to link back to this post!
This was not a sponsored post. I just want to mention that I did receive the Kreg Jig Jr as a “take-away” from the Haven Conference (an awesome bloggers conference held in Atlanta) in 2012. I also received the Kreg Shelf Pin Jig from the Haven Conference in 2013. They are great products and I recommend them ….well, except for the peg holes that can be used with the Kreg Jig Jr. Those could be designed better, in my opinion.
* This post first appeared my now defunct blog Sawdust and Hoops. Hope you enjoyed the recap!