Elaine and I decided it was important to have a full height wardrobe to house all our clothing, including our jackets, outdoor gear, and casual wear, as well as all our shoes. Therefore, I went to work on building a full storage cabinet on the passenger side of the van between the folding bed and the sliding side door. It would feature multiple shelves, a drying tray for wet/dirty shoes, a homemade door and plenty of coat hangers.

- 21 Feet of 1" X 4" Oak ($25.59 at Home Depot)

- 6 Pack of 8' Long Pine Panels ($10.99 at Lowes)

- Pax Brand Pre-Fabricated Wardrobe ($31.99 at Ikea)

- Five (5) 8' Long 2" X 3" Studs ($2.09 Each at Home Depot)

- One 4" Wide X 2' Long Flat Steel Piece ($11.99 at Home Depot)

- One 90 Degree 2' Long Steel Angle ($12.09 at Home Depot)

- Six (6) Liberty Brand Inlay Cabinet Hinges ($6.59/Pair at Home Depot)

- One 1" Diameter Rare Earth Magnet and Mounting Bracket ($15.66 on Amazon)

- 4 Pack Stainless Steel Latches ($12.07 on Amazon)

​- 20' Roll by 8" Wide Contact Paper ($5.59 at Target)

- One (1) Bottle of Lepage Wood Glue (Purchased Earlier)

- Many Various Fasteners, Including Rivet Nuts Purchased Previously

- Extra 1/4" Thick Hardboard Purchased Earlier for the Coffee Table

Total Material Cost: $160 US Dollars

- Table Saw with Cutting and Dato Blades

- Router with Various Bits

- Palm Sander

- Skil Saw

- Drills and Bits/Drives

- Kreg Hole Jig

- C-Clamps

- Pipe lamps

- Carpenters Square and Measuring Tape

​- Socket Set

​- Vice Grips and Box Wrenches (For Installing Rivet Nuts)

Time Spent on Job: 4 Days

Since this wardrobe is to be full height from the floor to the ceiling, I was going to have to work around all the curves and small crevices on the side van wall, as well as the ceiling. I figured the best place to start would be getting a frame of 2" X 3" studs securely connected to the van. Starting directly behind the side door, I chipped away at two pieces for the better part of 3-4 hours until they fit flush against the side of the van. There were many custom cuts at odd angles to make with the table and jig saws. Since the edge of the stud didn't quite line up very well with the existing holes in the van, I cut a 6 inch piece of 90 degree angle iron and anchored that to the van, again using the rivet nuts. My convoluted piece of wood then sat flush with the angle iron and I screwed the two together. I repeated for the upper half and I eventually had one edge of the frame done. Before attaching the 90 degree angle iron pieces, I also spray painted them white to prevent them from rusting, and placed a piece of milk jug between the bracket and the van to also help prevent rust from spreading, in case this ever became an issue.

With the frame complete, I took the time to make cardboard cut-outs of the two sides, which I could use as a template to trace the complex shape onto the panels included in the pre-finished wardrobe set I bought at Ikea. The 3 hours it took to do this was worth it, as it was easy to trace the shape, and cut the panels with the jig saw. I cut the side facing the back of the van in one full piece, brought it in to test fit, trimmed it a few times until it fit perfectly, and then secured it to the frame with a combination of size 12 screws where the side was hidden from view, and small angle brackets on the inside where the side is visible. This allowed me to not have any screw heads showing. Although I only ended up using the sides of the Ikea wardrobe I bought, the nice finish it included was worth the 30 dollars.

I then did the side facing the front of the van, however in two pieces, since the lower portion of this side will also be a door, to allow easy access to the bottom part of the wardrobe, where we will store most of our shoes. Having easy access from outside the van will allow us to easily put dirty shoes in a drying tray at the bottom of the wardrobe without tracking them in. Overall, installing the sides wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The only tricky part was making sure I cut the panels correctly.

This ended up taking an entire day just to build. My dad assisted me with this task as it would have been very hard to do on my own. I purchased 21 feet of 3.5 inch wide oak, and I was liking the idea of making a door with an oak frame, but with the pine panels all along the center of the door, inset into the oak. Doing this required one edge of all the oak to be ripped with a dato blade on the table saw to a thickness that matched the thickness of the pine panels (5/16"). The oak boards are only 3/4" thick so this was tricky, and even harder to get perfectly centered on the edge of the 10 and 11 foot pieces of oak with an old Sears table saw. With care though, we managed to cut the dato, then cut the two long 78 inch pieces that would make the sides of the door. 

Next we carefully measured what the final width of the door was going to be based on the cabinet box I had already built inside the van, and cut three short pieces, one for the top, middle and bottom of the door. My dad suggested to cut a tongue in each end of these 3 shorter pieces so they could also fit inside the end boards along with the panels. Doing this required precision trimming on the table saw to make sure both the length of the tongue, and the offset from each face matched the dato for the location it would butt against. Anything other than a perfect fit would show either a gap or a non-flush fit when connected.

In addition to the permanent shelves I built into the wardrobe, I added a 4th one in the bottom section to store additional shoes (including rock climbing shoes). Then using the 1/4" hardboard, I cut three more floating shelves to fill out the large central portion, and used some of the shelf clips to hold them in place. I also added a hanging rod on the top, just below the permanent shelf where we can set the three floating shelves down and be able to hang clothing on hangers if desired. I then purchased some decorative contact paper and covered the brown hardboard shelves with it both top and bottom. This proved to be time consuming!