How’s it holding up? Any issues or things you might have done differently in hind-sight?

Also wondering what you used to tie the materials together? Any chance it was the Kreg Pocket Hole system? If not, next time gotta try that.

Good luck.

Greg

Best of luck with your daughter’s closet!

– They use particle board of a quality similar to the boards found cheaply at Home Depot. Particle board is what is swept up off the floor when wood workers are working on REAL wood. It is a cheap by product. A subsititute that has been sold to many people as the best thing around when in reality there is nothing like Real Solid Wood.
- Paper thin layer of melamine is prone to damage each time you unscrew shelf holder or screws to relocate a shelf. The melamine is applied industrially by machine and the shelf edges are IRONED on. Again, this is bottom of the barrel construction.
- Don’t even think about having the CC closet exposed to water or a high moisture environment. You will end up with a closet ffull of mold and sagging cardboard.
- Yes – I also hated the pre-drilled holes from top to bottom of both sides of the cheap vertical panels that hold the shelves.
- Yes – They use cheap metal pegs to hold the shelves which result in the shelves shifting slightly evertime you place or remove an object. Not to mention that once in a while the entire shelf just drops out. They should have provided grooves to fix the shelves and prevent this. Poor design.
- The CC closets DO NOT include a back covering so you better make sure the walls are in pristine condition and painted prior to installation. You will see the walls in the background. Painting after the fact is a challenge. My advice – Use satin paint to allow for easy wipe cleanup over the years.
- I noticed that because the CC closets are made of particle board they design the systems in such a way that they raise the entire closet ensamble up off the floor by at least 6 inches. I assumed this was to prevent possible water damage. You lose an awful lotta space in this little hidden design feature that they use.
- CC closets are pre-designed. In other words all they do is cut it to fit you needs. They will not do extra wide or deep shelves. they so not do corners efficiently since everything is square. No L-shapes here.
– There is no doubt in my mind that they are way overpriced. You are basically paying for the custom fit/design and installation. Material costs are dirt cheap when you use particle board laminated with a paper thin layer of melamine. I cannot even begin to imagine the profit they made on a $3000 walk-in closet of simple shelving. By the way, this was my wifes project and she covered the costs so it was less painful to me.
- At the end of the installation, my CC closet smelled like plastic and glue. No wood smell whatsoever.

The Carpenter Made Closet was at a much more reasonable price when you value actual work by a human being versus that of a machine. It was far superior in materials. And the closet smelled like wood……ahhhhh. The Carpenter Made Closet had fine finishing details with solid non-shifting shelves, integrated L-shapes in the corners, etc.

My next closet (my daughters) will be MY DIY Project…wish me luck….

I’ll post some pics of all three next time round…

Yeah, one of the reasons why we decided to do it ourselves is because we weren’t super impressed with CC’s design. It felt really cramped, and they added a bunch of stuff that we didn’t have much use for. (in addition to the cost being jawdroppingly expensive for inferior materials). I’m all about paying more for high quality stuff, but I think we got a way better closet DIYing. Also, the comment from BW really makes me think twice about California Closet’s “marketing tactics”. If that’s how they operate, I really have no interest in ever giving them any business.