A closet covered in french cleats with shelves and hooks.

Gear porn, meet french cleats

I like to think of myself as a minimalist but truth is, I am a gear junkie. It is not that much that I collect gear for the sake of it but two of my main hobbies (rock climbing and highlining) require a lot of equipment. I wanted an elegant way to organize all my gear and easily access it (#gearporn). Meet french cleats (it is not what you think it is).

A french cleat is basically a rail on which you can hang things. If you put multiple rails regularly spaced, it create a system with endless possibilities to organize things. You can add shelves, hooks, buckets, custom holders and what not. But let's back up a bit.

There were couple issues with the closet. The doors were brown plastic ugly sliders and I'm not huge on having doors for a closet. The walk-in impression was a total failure. That closet was a sneak-in at best. When clothes were hanging on both sides, unless you were 6in wide there were no walking happening in there! And finally that back wall is shared with the bathroom and I could hear the shower as if I was in it. So I got to work: sound-proofed the wall, painted the room and rebuilt the closet with a french cleat system:

So what's so awesome about french cleat? I'm glad you fucking asked! French cleats are awesome for 3 reasons. 1/ It does not require fastners or glue, you simply drop items on the rail and it holds.

2/ You arrange the wall to your needs. If your needs ever change, so can the wall:

3/ It is quite inexpensive for its quality and look. I think it looks bad ass. It will last long and can even be moved. Every rail easily support my entire body weight, you can really hang whatever you want on it. All that for under 200$ of materials.

If you like what you see, and have a project you want to talk about, shoot me a message and I'll be happy to see how I can help!

You like what you see or have a project in mind? Contact me