This post is a sub-post from my BIG overhaul where I converted a spare bedroom into a closet. I needed a Partition wall to make that closet conversion a success. This post is all about that Partition wall. But the full post about the closet conversion is here.
Achieving the Correct Partition Wall Height: Joining Two Pieces of Plywood
It seemed our local lumber stores remained out-of-stock with 10’ sheets of plywood sheathing. So I set my mind to making my partition from a 4’ x 8’ sheet of furniture grade plywood.
Fancy woodworkers know how to join wood with “biscuits”. Uh, ain’ nobody got time for that! This project was already taking too long. So this is my work around.
As shown in the photo below, I used mending plates to connect a 2′ x 8’ piece of plywood to a 2′ x 2’ piece of plywood. But first I applied wood glue to the seam before joining the two pieces of plywood.
Attaching the Partition Wall
As shown in the photo below. I then used a piece of steel angle iron to attach this Partition to the perpendicular wall. The white on the right is the new partition. The brown is the existing wall in the bedroom.
And finally, I nailed a piece of quarter round on the floor to prevent the partition from “swinging”. As shown in the photo below.
This partition wall was not without its own challenges. But the biggest challenge of this partition wall was how to cut the plywood to fit around my existing crown molding.
I didn’t want to disturb the existing crown molding in the room in case we convert it back to a bedroom some day. That meant, I needed to cope the plywood to fit the crown molding.
Putting Up a Floor to Ceiling Partition Wall Without Disturbing the Crown Molding in the Room
Here’s my installed Partition wall. Check out that coping job near the ceiling!
I purchased a profile gauge (some call it a contour gauge). And I was so surprised when it didn’t work for me. Here’s why – none of the contour gauges out there (that I could find at the time) would accommodate the depth of my crown molding. That top piece comes out like 4” from the wall. The contour profiles I found were limited to 3.5”
But I was not going to be deterred. I had not yet heard of a “Contour Scribe”. So, I created a makeshift contour scribe. I taped a pen to the first useable tool in my junk drawer 😉 It worked and saved me some money. Here it is below.
I first traced the contour of the crown molding onto a poster board. Then I cut the poster board and had to tweak it a couple times to get a tight fit against the crown molding. Then I laid the cut poster board onto my plywood and traced the pattern.
Once I had the pattern drawn on my plywood, I used a jigsaw to cut the plywood. Bam! Got it the first time.
If I had it to do again, I would make something like this ingenious hack I found on Pinterest! Skewer sticks stuck into the “flutes” of a piece of cardboard. So smart!!
Covering the Seam Between Two Joined Pieces of Plywood: Pretty Paper to the Rescue
First to smooth the seam, I used wood filler and sanded it down. Then I applied this wonderfully THICK peel and stick EXTRA WIDE wallpaper. (It claims to be “renter-friendly” but I don’t know if it comes off easily.)
The wallpaper was 24” wide (which is exactly what I needed). It was sort of a Unicorn because standard wallpaper width is 20.5” and you can sometimes find 27” wide. And it’s thick so it hides imperfections a lot better. Trust, when I say this wallpaper was PERFECT.
But of course, the wallpaper wasn’t without its own challenge 😊. (Challenges are just a fact of life – I improvise, adapt, and overcome.)
The wallpaper comes in a 24” x 118” roll. I’m dealing with 10’ ceilings which is 120”. But I don’t want to buy 2 whole rolls for just 2 extra inches. I thought, surely the roll will have some wiggle room. Nope! It was exactly 118” of paper. Now if I order another roll, the lot number may not match.
Another idea fluttered in. I had some wallpaper left over from another project. I cut waves into that paper and used it as an abstract border in random areas around the partition. This worked well to hide the 2” gap at bottom. Plus, it gave me more visual interest.
I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m talking about, here’s a closer look.
The Finishing Touches on this Partition Wall
The raw edge of this Partition wall was facing into the room. So I used a piece of “lip molding” to finish off this edge. You can see a portion of this molding in the photo ABOVE. It’s painted gold and coming down the left side in this photo.
The last detail was to address the edge where the Partition wall meets the wall in the room. I used a piece of thin screen molding for this. As shown in the photo below.
I realize this might be hard to tell what you’re looking at 🙁 The white trim at the top edge of the photo – is the bottom of the crown molding in the room. The white pegboard is hanging on the wall in the room. It’s for belts and it hangs behind the door to the room. The golden brown on the left of this photo is the wallpaper I mentioned above.
This last photo below shows the finished Partition wall in place in my converted closet. My open clothing racks are hidden behind this partition. It works great!
I have a separate post for how I converted this spare bedroom into a closet. That full post is here.
Materials Used
4’ x 8’ x ½” sheet furniture grade plywood
72” piece of perforated steel angle iron (to attach the partition to the wall)
Various screws and washers for the angle iron
(3) mending plates
(12) ½” screws to attach mending plates to ½” thick plywood
24” piece of quarter round
10’ lip molding (to finish off the raw edge of partition wall)
10’ screen molding (to finish out the transition from the partition wall to the perpendicular wall)
24” x 118” roll of THICK peel and stick wallpaper
Tools Used
Take Away
Each project inevitably comes with its own unique challenges. If you KNOW this will happen, then it won’t surprise you. You just figure out how to work through the issues one at a time.
Here’s to not giving up and Making it Fabulous!
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