Fabric wardrobe or portable closet
Plastic connectors, steel tubes, and a fabric cover. No tools at all, and the trick is to build it in the right order.
Not what you bought? Try Cube organizer and modular shelving · Wire or metal utility shelving
What you need
In the box already: Steel or plastic tubes · Plastic corner and T connectors · Hanging rail · Fabric cover · Shelf panels
Before you open anything
- Sort the tubes by length into piles before you start. They look similar and the difference of an inch matters.
- Build it where it will stand. Fabric wardrobes are light but they cannot be carried assembled without racking.
- These hold far less weight than they look like they should. Plan for shirts and light items, not winter coats.
Please don't skip these
- Do not overload the hanging rail. A sagging rail is the warning sign before the whole thing collapses.
- Keep it away from heaters and radiators. The cover is fabric and the frame is plastic-jointed.
The whole thing, step by step
10 steps-
Sort the tubes by length
Lay the tubes out in piles by length and count each pile against the manual. This is nine tenths of the difficulty of this build.
- Measure and group: uprights, long horizontals, short depths
- Count each pile against the parts list
- Separate the connectors by shape: corners, Ts, four-ways
Watch out. Using a depth tube as an upright is the standard error, and you only find out at the last corner. -
Build the base rectangle first
Make the bottom rectangle flat on the floor: two long tubes, two short tubes, four corner connectors. Push each joint fully home.
- Four corner connectors, tubes between them
- Push each tube in until it bottoms out
- Check the rectangle is flat and square
Tip. A joint that is only half pushed in will pull out under load. Push until the tube stops moving, every single joint. -
Add the uprights
Push the vertical tubes into the upward sockets of the base connectors. The frame will feel wobbly until the top goes on. That is normal.
- One upright per corner, plus any middle uprights
- Press each fully home
- Keep the frame roughly upright as you go
Watch out. If an upright is a different length from its neighbor you have a depth tube in the wrong place. Compare before carrying on. -
Fit the mid-level shelf supports
Most wardrobes have T-connectors partway up for shelves. Push these on at the heights the manual shows, matching all four sides.
- T connectors onto the uprights at the marked heights
- Same height on every upright
- Short tubes between them to form the shelf frame
Tip. Check the heights with a tape measure rather than by eye. A shelf frame that is not level will make the shelf panel slide out. -
Close the top rectangle
Corner connectors onto the top of each upright, tubes between them. The moment the top rectangle closes, the whole thing becomes rigid.
- Top corner connectors on
- Long and short tubes between them
- Press every joint fully home
Tip. If the frame still feels floppy once the top is closed, one or more joints are not fully seated. Go round and push each one again. -
Fit the hanging rail
The hanging rail clips into dedicated connectors near the top. Make sure it is properly in both ends — this is the part that carries all the weight.
- Rail into its sockets at both ends
- Push until it seats
- Tug downward to test it
Watch out. A rail that has only dropped into one end will fail with a full load of clothes on it. -
Slide the cover on from the top
Drop the fabric cover down over the frame from the top, lining up the zip panels with the front. Work it down evenly rather than pulling one corner.
- Identify the front by the zips
- Drop over from the top
- Ease it down evenly, working all four corners together
Tip. Two people makes this trivial: one lifts the cover over the top, the other guides the corners down.Watch out. Yanking one corner of the cover tears the seams or pulls the frame apart at a joint. Work it down evenly. -
Fit the shelf panels and secure the cover
Slide the shelf panels into their frames through the open front, then do up any internal velcro or ties that hold the cover to the frame.
- Shelf panels in through the front
- Velcro tabs around the frame tubes inside
- Zip the doors to check they close cleanly
Tip. The internal velcro ties are what keep the cover taut and stop the frame racking. Most people never find them. -
Load it lightly and watch for sag
Load it gradually and watch the rail. Shirts and light clothes on the rail, heavier folded items on the bottom shelf.
- Light items on the rail
- Heavy folded items on the bottom
- Watch the rail for any bow
Watch out. If the rail bows, take weight off. These frames are rated far lower than they look, and a collapse takes the cover and the connectors with it. -
Re-seat the joints in a week
After a week under load, go round and push every joint home again. They settle, and this is the whole maintenance routine.
- Push each tube joint home
- Check the rail at both ends
- Re-tighten the internal velcro
Tip. If a particular joint keeps working loose, a wrap of electrical tape around the tube end makes the fit snug permanently.
If something has gone wrong
The whole frame leans or racks like a parallelogram
Joints are not fully seated, or the internal velcro ties that hold the cover to the frame are not fastened. Those ties are structural. Push every joint home and fasten them all.
The hanging rail sags or fell down
Overloaded, or the rail was only seated at one end. Reduce the weight and make sure both ends are fully pushed into their connectors.
A plastic connector cracked
Replacements are sold by the manufacturer and as generic multi-packs. If a connector cracked, the frame is under more load than it should be — reduce the weight too.
A tube keeps falling out of its connector
The fit has loosened. Wrap a couple of turns of electrical tape around the tube end and push it back in. It will hold indefinitely.
The cover will not zip up
The frame is out of square, so the cover is being stretched diagonally. Square up the base rectangle and the zip will usually close easily.
It will not fit in the space I measured
Check whether you used the right tubes for depth and width. Swapping a depth tube for a width tube changes the footprint and is easy to do when the lengths are close.
Words you will see in the manual
- connector
- A plastic joining piece on tool-free furniture. Press it on square, fully home. Angled pressure cracks it.
- square
- Describes a frame whose corners are true right angles. You check it by measuring both diagonals: if the two numbers match, it is square.
- press fit
- A joint that holds by friction alone, with no screw. Push until it stops moving.