How to Line a Closet with Aromatic Cedar

Aromatic cedar has long been touted as a natural method of keeping fabrics fresh and free from fabric-devouring moths and insect larvae, and cedar chests have been used for decades for storing off-season clothing, blankets, keepsakes, and whatnot. Cedar blocks are available for freshening closets and trunks, but their usefulness is limited and the scent quickly fades.

Instead of using expensive cedar oil or cedar blocks, consider lining your closets with real wood. Lining a closet with genuine cedar panels is a fantastic way to enjoy the benefits of a cedar chest, and it is a weekend project that is easier to accomplish than many people realize. Cedar closet lining is a worthwhile investment that will provide the many benefits of aromatic cedar, and it will last indefinitely. If you can read a tape measure and pound a nail, you can begin lining a closet with aromatic cedar and achieve professional results without the cost of hiring a skilled carpenter.

Before Beginning

When doing any type of woodworking, take precautions to protect your eyes from wood particles and dust by wearing safety glasses or goggles. In addition, wear a dust mask to prevent the inhalation of the same. Always provide adequate ventilation when working with adhesive, and read product label instructions for additional precautions and warnings.

Necessary Supplies and Preparation

To begin lining a closet with aromatic cedar panels you will require a pry bar for removing molding and trim, a battery-operated or electric stud finder, construction adhesive, pliable latex caulk in a ready-to-use tube, two-inch finishing nails, a hammer, and a level. You will also need a tape measure, a pencil, wood putty, a small putty knife, small scraps of one-quarter inch thick wood, and tongue and groove cedar planks or four-foot by four-foot panels for lining the walls. If you do not want to cut the panels at home, measure carefully and take the required dimensions to a home improvement store or lumberyard. They will cut the wood to predetermined specifications. Otherwise you will also need a circular saw and a workbench or sturdy sawhorses.

When determining the amount of wood required, keep in mind that a gap of approximately two millimeters must remain in between the panels to allow for expansion caused by environmental factors. Also, the last panel placed on a side wall of the closet must be one-quarter inch narrower to accommodate the adjoining panel on the back wall, and if two four-foot high panels are used, each panel should be one-quarter inch shorter than necessary to cover the entire height of the closet from ceiling to floor. In other words, a one-quarter inch gap will remain along the floor as well as near the ceiling. Wood molding or flexible latex caulking can be applied next to the ceiling to fill in the gap, and baseboards can be reinstalled or replaced to cover the gap along the floor.

Procedure

Before lining a closet with aromatic cedar, remove everything from the area including rods and shelving and anything on the floor. It will be easier to work on lining the closet with aromatic cedar if everything is out of the way.

Use a battery-operated or electric stud finder to locate the studs behind closet walls, and mark the center as closely as possible using a pencil. Measure the location of the pencil marks with a measuring tape, and take careful notes. This will make it easier to find the studs once the aromatic cedar panels have been attached with construction adhesive and the marks on the walls are no longer visible.

Prepare to install a bottom side panel first by placing scraps of one-quarter inch wood along the wall. This will hold the first panel at the proper height. Next, apply construction adhesive to the back of the first piece of aromatic cedar. Support the panel on top of the scraps of wood, and press it into place on the wall. Once it is in place, continue to hold it, and use a finishing nail to attach it to a stud. The nail should not be pounded in all the way. Keeping it partially unattached will enable you to level the sheet before pounding the nail in all of the way.

Level the sheet by moving up and down accordingly, and once it is level, pound the corner nail in the rest of the way. Space additional finishing nails approximately six-inches apart along the stud as well as into the rest of the studs beneath the aromatic cedar panel. Attach the rest of the panels using construction adhesive and finishing nails, and remember to leave about two millimeters of expansion space between each one until the entire bottom section lining the walls is complete.

The last step in lining the closet with aromatic cedar panels involves attaching the upper sections while using the first panel as a guide. Follow the same procedure regarding applying adhesive and nailing the panels into place, and once the panels are completely lining the close walls, cover the gap near the ceiling with wood trim or flexible latex caulking. Remove the spacers from the bottom, and if the baseboards did not crack upon removal, reinstall them. If they were damaged, install new baseboards to give the cedar lining a finished appearance.

Once the adhesive beneath the aromatic cedar panels completely dries, reinstall closet rods and shelving, but keep in mind, they may not fit as they once did. The closet space will be approximately one-half inch narrower than it was before lining the walls with one-quarter inch panels.

Keep the closet closed when not in use, and seal gaps using draught proofing in an effort to maintain the scent for as long as possible. If the scent begins to fade it can be easily refreshed.

Refreshing Old Cedar

If the closet is well-sealed the cedar panels should remain aromatic for months or even years, but once the closet begins losing the characteristic cedar scent, refreshing it is simple. Lightly sand the panels with fine-grit sandpaper and the closet will smell just as good as it did when the cedar lining was first installed.

Author and home decor specialist Alyssa Davis is the senior staff writer for Metal-Wall-Art.com, and she specializes in contemporary decorating and wall art decor.