DIY Cedar Lined Closet

As part of our basement renovation, we built a closet in the new hallway, so we can store off-season clothes and free up some space in our coat closet and guest bedroom. The interior wall wall was made of cinder block (fall out shelter, maybe?) so my husband thought we needed to cover it up. We talked about lining it with cedar, but that was not in our budget, so we had decided to line it with some of the old paneling we removed. While at Haven Conference a few months back, I was introduced to CedarSafe and they generously agreed to partner with me and provide the materials for this project.

You may wonder why a cedar closet? Cedar, not only smells great, but it also repels pests such as moths, cockroaches, and silverfish and is resistant to mildew. Being in a basement, I feel like it is more susceptible to moisture and bugs, so it was important to protect the items we are storing down there.

The planks were very easy to install; my husband completed our closet by himself in less than a day. (Thanks honey!) Since we were installing the planks over a concrete block wall, we needed to add a couple of 2x4's to attach them to. We chose to only add two strips since the design did not need to be intricate. The most important (and probably hardest) part of the project is to get the bottom row of planks level and figure out the tongue and groove pattern.

Once the bottom two rows were in, then my hubby just had to cut the remaining planks to size and continue the pattern up to the top of the wall. To easily make the cuts, my hubby screwed a block into his work bench to act as a "stop" so he could quickly cut the planks to size.

The instructions on the box suggest to install it in a subway pattern for an aesthetically pleasing look.

Since we were installing the planks in a closet, we picked an easy pattern, staggering between the two furring strips.

He repeated the process on both sides of the closet. The end result looks (and smells) so good! This closet will be perfect for storing our off-season clothes and decorations once we finish the drywall, paint, and floors.

Disclosure: A special thanks to to CedarSafe  for providing the materials to complete this project. All opinions are 100% my own.