I live in an old cape with knee walls, slanted ceilings and dormers upstairs. What I don’t have is storage!! Small closets, no shelves, etc.
I need some “built-in” ideas. Is anyone aware of plans for bookcases, dressers, etc. for rooms with sloped ceilings? Where can I find?
Thanks.
Toolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as “Toolfreak”)
Replies
My first thought was... Storage for a cape... try a clothes hanger in a closet. Now that the bad pun is out of the way, do you have enough room behind the knee-wall to store stuff?? How about a series of large drawers that roll (fit) into the knee-wall with the front of the drawer looking like a large raised panel? When finished, the knee-wall would look like an ellegant raised panel wall. Unfortunately, these short walls are not a standard size so all work will be cut to fit work. SawdustSteve
Toofanatic,
Maybe something like this will work. The roof slant is about 45*.
Very cool! I already have one small built-in dresser (I did not build it) and had been thinking about building some additional ones myself. I definitely have room behind the knee walls.
Did you build these? What materials & types of joinery did you use?
Toolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as "Toolfreak")
I built these as part of a larger order of cabinetry for a client's home. I had the framers rough in the knee wall about 4' high and leave three rough openings for these storage units and an access door. The units are pretty straightforward MDF construction with sprayed latex paint finish. They are built in the shop, and installed in the openings plum and level, then trimmed with door moulding and touched up. Fairly quick and dirty really, but they turned out nice. The drawers are 10" deep and are mounted on full extension K&V 28" slides.
Segil,Excellent solution to the storage issue!On another matter, please reduce the size of photos in future posts. Your photo is way too large for folks with dial-up access to download. Photos should be less than 100KB, preferably 60KB or even smaller.Regards,
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Great idea, how much would it cost to do this, where can I get the material.
Thanks, Liz
Segil is on it. I assume you have space behind the knee wall and perhaps access via the dormers. But either way a simple set of built-in shelves that extend into that space behind the wall and under the rafters is great space to utilize. The only down side is that it is low, but still easily used. And you can either leave them open like a bookcase or put doors on and make it more like a dresser.
We have access via the dormers and store some seldom-used stuff in there, but I'm going to do a number of built-ins since it is easier to get to, less musty/dusty, and simply provides more useable space (I'm not inclined to go crawling through the eaves to get to stuff).
We have an old cape. We built a couple of closets but very useful space was obtained by building drawers into the kneewall to make, in essence, built-in dressers. We have four of them, two in each of the two upstairs rooms, each with four drawers. It is like have four dressers that take no space.
Best wishes
Stephen J. Gaal
What 'cha doing for insulation?
Andy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
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Funny you should ask!
I just had an insulation contractor come and cut a bunch of holes in my knee walls so he could get in there and suck out all the old rock-wool in between the rafters. It was being held in there by cardboard baffles and didn't allow for soffit vents. We had virtually no ventilation in the attic (crawlspace), which made for ice-damming problems in winter and sweltering summers upstairs.
Long story short (or shorter, at least) is that I had Icynene foam sprayed in-between all the rafter bays from from the ridge to the eaves. Also the dormer tops and gable end walls in the crawl space. Now when you look inside the knee walls, it's like marshmallow fluff all over the place.
Now that I've got all these large holes to patch, I'm thinking I'll just make some built-in bookcases and dressers like everybody's suggesting. I've got plenty of room in there and I hate patching plaster!!
Toolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as "Toolfreak")
Cool. Icynene is a good way to go. It's an open cell foam, so it allows some moisture vapor to pass and the framing to dry. It seals out air, so it goes a long way to prevent moisture in the first place.Andy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
An updated profile is a happy profile.
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. --Robert M. Pirsig
None of this matters in geological time.
Storage ideas for a cape..
I'd ask Batmans Butler!
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