Toddler Montessori Closet // Free 3D Plans! // DIY Woodworking Kids Furniture

It's time to build a Montessori closet for my daughter!

After the huge success of the Montessori toy shelves that we built, we knew we had to make this a set with a matching closet.

Materials:

• 18mm laminated pine board
• Scrap wooden broom handle
• Pocket hole screws
• Wood glue
• Varnish / Stain

Tools:

• Circular saw / Table saw
• Straight edge / fence
• Pocket hole jig and bit
• Clamps
• Sand paper
• Brush

Nice to have:

• Sander
• Miter saw
• Router with a roundover bit
• Countersink bit
• Plug cutter
• Corner clamps
• Speed square

I started by setting my circular saw to the correct depth to reduce splinters in the wood.

Then I moved on to cutting all the pieces to size.
I don't have a table saw, so I placed the board on a piece of styrofoam, measured my first cut and clamped a fence to make sure it's straight.
You can use whatever fence you have, as long as it's straight and won't bend if any side pressure is applied to it.

Once that's done I started cross cutting the sides of the closet.
Then I moved on to the 4 shelves, and the divider.

After I had all the pieces cut to size, it was time to drill some pocket holes!
I laid all the pieces together, marked where I need to drill and drilled away.

I wanted the edges of the closet to be round, and thought it would be easier doing it before assembly on my router table with a roundover bit... make sure you plan what edges you need to round, otherwise you'll have a lot of covering up to do :)

Check out my youtube video for the mistake I made...

I moved on to assembling the frame of the closet.
I spread some glue, and used some improvised corner clamps out of scrap wood to help me with holding the corners at 90 degrees, then checked for square with my speed square, and added the pocket hole screws.

When the frame was complete, I placed the divider and shelves in place to see if it all fits, and took some initial measurements.
The shelves are spaced about 23 cm from each other, but you can customize it to whatever fits your needs.

To help with holding the pieces squared while I'm adding the screws, I used 2 speed squares and some scrap wood with a straight edge, and held everything together with clamps.

When it was all assembled, I checked for structural integrity ;)

For the hanging rod, I'm using some scrap wooden broom I had laying around.

I wanted to go with a seamless look for the screws, so I prepared a few wooden plugs to cover them.

I measured where the rod needs to be, and drilled holes from the inside out. Then I moved on to countersinking the holes for the screws, and made sure the plugs fit. I predrilled into the rod, then added some glue to it and screwed it in place.
I then added glue to the plugs and adjusted them to fit the grain the most.

I cut the wood plugs flush, and gave them a quick sand down.

If you remember the mistake I mentioned earlier, I had to start sanding some parts with 60 grit sand paper, then I moved on to sanding everything with 220 grit.

When I finished sanding the faces, I moved on to sanding the edges flush, to get rid of any inaccuracies of my initial cuts, then I rounded the edges of the shelves.

Before applying the finish, I made sure to remove any dust leftovers from the sanding with a damp cloth,
and clean the garage to prevent sawdust flying around.

For the finish I wanted to keep the original color of the wood, that way it would match the Montessori toy shelves that I previously built, so I applied a layer of semi gloss water based varnish, waited until it was dry and then applied another layer.

I'm really happy with the final result, and my daughter was super thrilled about it as well!

Thanks for reading!