How I Built this Closet Tower

First, I measured the closet.

Then I sketched out a basic closet design.

I decided to build a tower as the main structure of the shelving. The plans for this tower are below.

I ripped 3/4" plywood down into strips 15-3/4" wide on the table saw.  

Then I cross cut the ripped pieces to get the cuts I needed.

Once all the pieces were cut, I used my Kreg Jig to build the basic box and face frame,

I then added trim to the carcass with a 1-1/4" brad nailer.

Here's the basic carcass done.

For finishing, I applied wood filler and then sanded everything with medium grit sandpaper.

And she's ready for paint!

After painting, I drilled shelf pin holes and installed shelves.

Adding Rods and Shelves

On either side of the tower, I wanted to add some shelving and hanging rods.

After placing the tower in it's final home and securing to the wall, I measured the length of shelving I'd need and cut it and painted it.  I drill 3/4" pocket holes on the ends and used it to attach to the tower at the top.

On the open end I used L brackets.  

On all the studs in the walls, I attached the shelf using L brackets underneath.

Because the front edges of the shelves are raw plywood, I added trim to make it look nicer, and also add some strength to the shelf.

I just nailed on with 1-1/4" brad nails.

Here's the shelves done, don't they look nice?

Now for the closet rods -

These pole sockets were about $1 a set, so I opted to use them.  It's just a matter of finding where you want the closet rod to be centered, and attaching - here I attached the pole sockets first to wall cleats,

And then attached the wall cleats to studs in the wall.

The opposite cleat is just attached directly to the tower,

And then I cut the closet rods to fit and hung them in place.

On the far side, I only left a couple feet for hanging longer dresses.