Out of the Closet Finally

The car business is always slow this time of year, and I am not one to sit around and watch talk shows all day, although I do enjoy "The Ellen Degeneres Show". So, I decided to turn our seldom used Florida room into a cedar closet for my wife Toni (mindoverbatter.us).
The first decision was the overall look of the closet. We chose cedar paneling with some cedar planks as trim and accents. For the shelving, we wanted to go with something white to brighten up the space and maybe put in a couple of windows for natural light.

We framed up the space on 16" centers and installed our paneling. The ceilings are 9 feet so the 8 foot panels left some unsightly joints at the top near the ceiling. We installed some 8" planks topped off with 4" for some aesthetic appeal.

The second decision was what type of flooring to go with. We decided on a laminate floor system so we could allocate more funds towards the cedar and the actual shelving. Although we are not really on a budget, Toni and I try to be as frugal as possible (my Amex bill says otherwise). We should have gone with an actual wood floor. This floating system is just not good at all. The joints don't lock in and depending on the relative humidity you can see small to large separations of the panels. The installation was fairly straightforward. First,  Jason (my son) and I taped down a 6 mil plastic moisture barrier then we installed the underlayment which was plastic with small styrofoam like balls. This acts as another moisture barrier and helps deaden the sound when walking. I can not stress this enough, but make sure the floor is CLEAN. Remember the princess and the pea? same effect here. Trash under you flooring will cause you big problems later. Once the underlayment was installed, it was time for the flooring itself. The flooring panels are simulated wood but reminded me a lot of a jigsaw puzzle, both in fit and composition. These production pieces simply did not fit together well at all. For every two or three pieces that were perfect there were one or two that were twisted or contorted and were a nightmare to fit. Unless you wanted your material cost to be quadruple as you discard the odd pieces, you are forced to live with a substandard floor.


Once the flooring was in it was time for the cabinets and shelving. We went with some sturdy mounted melamine and some crown moulding themed shoe racks. We will probably put in some more shelves and possibly a table depending on what Toni wants against the wall with the windows. As you can see, it needs something.

My Wife may have a shoe problem

All in all, I think the trim and paneling turned out nicely. I regret the flooring choice. Time will tell if I have to rip out the cabinets and reinstall some real wood flooring?????