I see in clients’ homes some very nice custom closets, that frankly look like plain old melamine shelves that are custom cut to size and so forth. I would like to roll my own, but the Home Depot version that I looked at last week was so broken down that I figured I could spend three days building it out, and the first shelf would bust through in a month.

Has anyone done this, and is there a source for better quality material??

I built our own walk in with the ClosetMaid stuff.

Lowe's building supply had donated all the last year model stuff to Habitat for Humanity, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Bought enough to do a 8x10 closet for pennies on the dollar.

Yeah, it's just particle board with a melamine cover. but it's held up really well, as it's been in use for at least 10+ years.

Check Craigslist. My mom found a free "you come get it" custom closet fully loaded with drawers and accessories. Easily $5k and mint condition.

I used the Martha Stewart system from Home Depot. Fit and finish isn’t as good as our California Closets organizers, but they were about 75% cheaper. We’ve had them for 4 years and nothing has broken. You are correct, it’s basically a Lego set for adults and installation takes quite a bit of effort. Here’s the design tool: https://www.marthastewartclosets.com

I'm In the midst of redoing our bedroom. We have a small closet so I originally had gone down the path of getting one of those kits from HD/Lowes. But after reading all the reviews I determined it will just be easier to build it my self.

If you want it colored other then white you will have to go to a cabinet shop supplier/ mom and pop lumber yard. Melamine kind of sucks because the veneer flakes off unless you have a zero clearance track saw or you use a circular saw and lay down painters tape on the cut. You also have to edge band it

I decided since im spraying all the trim anyway that I would just do Birch Plywood with a small faceframe and paint it. For the drawers you can get the boxes and fronts premade from https://www.barkerdoor.com/

For the shelf pins you can do [Link: homedepot.com]

Closets are nothing more then "exploded" cabinets!

I've been getting into wood working more and more lately. Currently I'm building out my bar cabinets with a 3/8" beading detail around all of the rails/stiles. Super PIA but the end result looks great! I'm using a prefinished birch 3/4" ply for the cabinet boxes that I've purchased at Menards which is similar to a Home Depot.

Regarding your closet, any good lumber yard sells 3/4" fiberboard with whatever veneer you want. The Menards I mentioned above also has different fiberboards with select veneers that could be an option. So building something from scratch wouldn't be that big of a deal. The work itself not that difficult but you have to have time to do it. The problem you are going to have is do you have the time? And are you married? If your married, buy the Closetmaid stuff and get it done in a weekend. My basement project is going on for over a year....

Laminate the shelves after cutting to size and use a spiral down cut flush bit on a router for the edges- it won't chip but you'll need to ease the edges a bit because they'll cut like a knife. If you want to dress up the front edge, add a piece of wood trim.

I would be careful with Menard's sheet goods- the MDF is crap and most of the Masonite isn't tempered, so it will sag, leave bad edges after cutting and is easy to scratch and gouge. The unfinished plywood warps and it usually warped when it's on their shelves.

I did a Menards closet using the heavy wire product. Essentially, mount a track at the top, hang rails off that, and then put brackets in to hold shelves. Worked well, took a couple hours, and has lasted 10 years to date.

Don't forget about Ikea, of course it's not as good as custom, but I've found it better than a lot of the stuff in the Depots and very customizable.

Menards is certainly the Walmart of home goods centers. But the point is, you can find prefinished laminated sheet goods at many different hardware centers if you just look for it. That way you are stuck with white melamine shelving if you are looking for more. To buy those sheet goods at a lumber yard, you are going to pay a lot more. It may be worth it depending on the quality of work you are doing. The Tiger Ply I buy from Menards is shit but it beats a white melamine cabinet box IMO. Interiors look richer and there is a lot more strength than the press board crap.

True Beaded face frame cabinets are some of the most difficult you can make! Did you get the KREG system or are you doing it manually? I’m ordering the sommerfeld beaded face frame system. Since I have a powermatic cabinet saw I can pull it off. Paired with my Incra router table it should be a breeze once everything is set up.

Or are you doing it completely manually with jigs?

Everything is manual. I've built a table saw drop-in for my router base. Then created a custom fence that sits over the existing fence. Routing a bead is fairly easy. The tricky part is the notching. I created a sled that can do cross cuts as well as this notching but things can get out of whack quickly. Then I clamped a stop onto my chop saw for the 45 cuts on the rails. The biggest problem I had was screwing the pieces into stiles. Trying to line a bead upside down is impossible and I gave up. Now instead of clamping the face frame together then screwing, I'm simply clamping the two pieces to a flat surface, then screw. But yeah, doing beading is no joke.

Kreg is a masterful tool. One of my favs.

They sell a lot of stuff with a very thin vinyl covering- I think a fingernail could go through it. I bought a counter top from Menard's over 15 years ago, with Wilsonart laminate, lip at the front edge and back-splash at the rear- I couldn't buy the particle board and a sheet of laminate for the same price- it just made sense to buy theirs. I did laminate the rest, mainly because it would have been 'custom' and a lot more expensive.

I like Menard's more than Home Depot for a lot of things and since Lowe's is a lot farther away, I don't go there unless I happen to be in the area or they have something different and I need it.

Like anything else, it's a matter of picking and choosing, to get the best of what each has.