Anyone convert a closet into a gun closet?

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Hammer059

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I am in the process of renovating a house I recently inherited. Should be moving in right after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, the room that will be my bedroom has a closet with a standerd size door (like a door to a room) and the closet is about the same width and depth as the door… Let's say approximately 36" wide X 30" deep X 7.5 ft height (I haven't taken exact measurements yet).

I'd like to turn this into a gun closet. Add slots for rifles & shotguns, and shelves for handguns/magazines/etc.

Has anyone done this? Please share photos if you have! I'm looking for ideas and advice on how to do this. Doesn't have to be anything crazy but I'm just trying to decide how to set it up. Feel free to chime in!
 
I've done it. Large safe in back, heavy wire shelving for ammo and magazines organized into 30 and 50 cal ammo cans. Using the top of the safe as a shelf. Reinforced a pre-existing shelf and a plastic shelving unit on that for several layers of lighter stuff (tools spotting scope, empty boxes, etc). IPSC targets stashed into various interstitial spaces. I even used a couple tie organizers to store 10 p-mags on the wall. Space them 1.75" apart from screw to screw and they line up with the various ridges on 1st and 2nd gen 30 round p-mags which "lock" into place (less critical for GI mags). I'll post a picture of the mag organizer later :)
 
You didn't mention anything about security. A closet door is not security; a safe is. It's wiser to spend the money on a safe first, then design storage areas, if desirable.
 
Security is not what I'm asking for a discussion about. My doors and windows all have quality reinforced locks on them. I have no children or roomates to worry about nosing around in there. If someone breaks in while I'm not home they could have plenty of time to figure out how to break in if they wanted. Plus if someone did break in while I'm not home I'd be far more concerned about harm to my dog than anything else in the house. FYI, the door to the closet will have a keypad deadbolt and the frame will be reinforced. That's good enough for me. I appreciate your concern, though.
 
Based on the unfortunate experiences of several people I know, a safe is just a convenient way for thieves to wheel out all your guns in one unit. In my case I had a huge effort to get the safe through the closet door sideways when it was empty and now it is blocked by metal shelving full of heavy ammo cans. Should slow them down a little bit. I'm planning on moving in the next couple years and I want to make a vault in the next house.
 
You should try to increase the fire resistance of the closet; add a layer or two of Type X drywall to all surfaces, including the inside of the door. It may decrease the inside volume by a small amount, but adding 30 minutes to the fire resistance may save your collection in a house fire. For me, the fire protection of a safe is at least as important as the theft protection.
 
The OP is only looking at converting a closet as a convenient central place for guns ammo, etc., and not as a secure storage, substitute for a gun safe.
I replaced the door knob of a closet door with a deadbolt lock, with the strike plate anchored with decking screws into the door frame 2x4s. The main goal was to deter curious kids or "borrowing" relatives, not to stop sophiscated thieves escaped from a caper movie.

But I would point out that most local burglaries are snatch and grab, five minutes in'n'out before the neighbors can alert the police. They stuff what can be hocked easily into a pillow case and scram ASAP. The least you can do to slow them down is often enough to discourage them from trying. The equivalent of taking your keys out of the ignition with you when you stop at a store.

To improve security though, I ought to drill and deadpin the door hinge pins and face the wooden door with sheet metal painted like wood.

Bangswitch's suggestion, add a layer of sheetrock inside the closet to increase fireprotection by 30 minutes, would make a good wintertime project for me. We do have good response time from the FD, and 30 minutes could make difference between a loss and a save. There are other sentimental heirlooms in that closet besides my guns.
 
I just got done doing a project like this on our new house. I added a locking latch to the outside of the closet doors. I had two wooden gun racks, and I mounted them on the back wall of the closet. I had a smaller stack on metal gun cabinet I put inside the closet. I didn't get real fancy, but it works well for a half day project, it was a cheap, and I think I like it better than getting a bigger gun safe. It really blends into the room, and doesn't stand out like a giant safe would.
 
Carl, when you guys say to add a layer of the fire resistant drywall, I can't just put it up over the existing walls and door, right? Seems like I'd have to do some finishing and lots of additional work to make it look halfway decent.

Thanks for sharing ScrapMetalSlug, I also like the idea of a locked closet over a safe.

Like I mentioned before with home break-ins, and same applies to a potential fire (god forbid)…. I'd be way more concerned about losing my dogs than I would about any amount of guns or items I have in the home. Not that I don't care about the safety of my firearms as well, they probably come in second…. but it's a distant second to family and pets.
 
I am in the process of building a new house. The plan called for a mechanical room accessed through the garage for the furnace and water heater but I requested to the builder that they move the furnace and water heater to the crawl space and leave the mechanical room to be available as a gun room. It will have a steel door with a deadbolt and the garage is going to be both heated and air conditioned so temperature and humidity control should not be a problem. I am going to put my existing safe in the garage and use it for storing some firearms and other valuable items. I plan to make some supports with rails to display my rifles by genre, starting with the revolutionary war period and working up to modern weaponry. When I finish I will post some photos. Should be complete sometime in late 2017.
 
Not exactly a closet, it probably isn't used for guns anymore but I sold this Cape Cod house a couple years ago. About 20 years ago I made this. I cut the wall out in the master bedroom and inserted a "box" I made out of cedar and it held 5 long guns and a few revolvers. I then put a mirrored door on it.
The guy who bought the place didn't even know it opened and there was a gun rack inside.
Here's some pics I found of my old realty listing.
First one shows it behind the door. Second with the mirrored door closed and third open.
Wish I had the old pics when it was full.


View attachment 224902
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You asked.

I would gut the closet, right down to bare studs.

The room-side door trim would be carefully removed and saved.

The door and frame removed entire.

The stud bays would then be solid-filled with rockwool insulation taking care to leave no gaps, and to not over-compress the material.
Over that would go 5/8" single-leg furring channel at 16" O.C. Over that would go a layer of 5/8" paperless, fire-rated gypsum material or cementitious board. All those joints would be fire-caulked and taped. The ceiling would be included in this treatment. Then another layer over that, with a bias for paperless gypsum board for a smooth paintable surface. (All of this presumes I have not found a stash of excess 1 1/4" Core Liner and it's stud clips.

The door would be replaced with a fire-rated hollow metal door and frame. The frame would be specified as a 2 butt frame. The door would be chosen to best match the rest of the doors in the house. The final wall dimension would define how I'd frame the finish around the door. Ideal would be to flush fit the HM frame, and cover the metal edge with the original trim if at all possible.

I'm in the trade, so I know a couple sources for multti-point locking bolts; but a long-throw deadbolt would be the minimum installed on this door. The door would get tumescent tape weatherstripping, too.

The existing light fixture would be replaced with LED strip fixtures (which would probably be a 2x2 surface mount with T8 LED lamps) This would be wired to a contact switch on the door. I'd install a duplex convenience outlet on one of the walls, hung off the power to the ceiling fixture.

If the floor was wood, it would be treated just like the walls, and metal threshold installed to collect the door.

This would net a 2+ hour fire resistance, and a significant burglar resistance (if mostly relying upon being nondescript

Now, depending upon the closet, and the structure and it's character, I might even rip the studs down ans use 4x16x8 CMU as a liner.

But, I've been in architecture nad construction all of my life, so I know how I'd collect up the materials and get them installed. I've designed and isntall a number of "silver closests" in my day, so this would not be uncharted waters for me.
 
I converted a closet in the 4th bedroom of my last house, which was in an out of the way place in the house. In Massachusetts a closet is not considered as secure storage even with a lock on the door; go figure. I had a small combination safe for the handguns and a Stack On cabinet for the long guns. The key to the cabinet was in the safe and the key to the closet was on my key ring with the spare key buried out by the shed. Ammo and range supplies were stored above on reinforced shelves. This arrangement worked well for 13 years. Aside from a vault, I have always felt that stealth is a great asset to security. At that time I never considered fire issues, although the combination safe was fire rated.
 
If it's not a walk in closet, with the door opening in, I wouldn't. The hinges on the outside are a weak point. Just knock out the pins and you're in...

Ideally you should get a big safe in the basement that can't be removed through a doorway. Build a closet around it!

And get a burglar alarm. That's the only way to limit a break in to grab-n-go.

What I definitely wouldn't do is park a safe in your garage that someone can back a truck up to for easy loading...
 
Are you interested in any security enhancements at all, or purely open storage?

There are several makers that produce closet gun safes/cabinets, designed specifically to go inside of a closet. Some of these safes come in multiple pieces so they can be assembled inside of a closet or very enclosed space (where otherwise you would have to knock out a wall in many cases.) Most of these products are very low-security (10-14 gauge armor), but they are obviously augmented by good hiding tactics, and their primary purpose isn't full-out security.
For example...
https://www.snapsafe.com/

I helped a friend do a modular setup in a walk-in, using a combination of his medium gun safe, some of that heavy gauge metal wire shelving, locking Stack-On cabinets (at $50-70 for a 4 cubic foot cabinet, these are cheap, well made considering the cost, easy to bolt multiples together, and nice for storing bulk ammo given it ideally shouldn't be stored long-term in the same locking fire-resistant container as the firearms/other valuables.) A few months in he added humidity control due to humidity levels that weren't terrible but beyond ideal. He intended to do a false wall and to add some type of fire resistant material, but moved before doing so and then purchased a high-security safe.

The size you are working with sounds like it may be a limiting factor for a false wall since they tend to work best with larger closets and walk-ins. Is a false wall something you are considering at this point? (it is a great security enhancement.)

Are you currently thinking about fire protection?
 
If it's not a walk in closet, with the door opening in, I wouldn't. The hinges on the outside are a weak point. Just knock out the pins and you're in...

A couple ways to deal with that. There are security hinges that have pins that enter into the opposing side of the hinge flange, or the hinge pin can be drilled and pinned, but that can be a nuisance if you ever need to remove the door.


I needed some security in a closet, not safe grade, but small children and whatever odd folks may end up being in the house, so I could secure my personal gun quickly and easily. I just used a keyed entry doorknob on the closet door. Fine for most of what I needed. Theres a safe, but not handy to where I needed it. It still had to be primarily a closet, so the lockable knob was all it got, besides 3" screws in the strike plate and hinges so it couldn't be kicked or pulled out easily. One key was always on me, the other in the safe.
 
I reload in a closet in my den. sawed a solid core door in half and mounted it on some 2x4s screwed to the wall studs. Very sturdy reloading platform.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. Some great ideas. I was working 12 hour shifts the past few days and didn't have time to respond.

I wish this was a larger closet, but it's not. 40" wide, 34" deep, and about 8 ft high to the ceiling.

Since it's just my dog and I for the foreseeable future, there's enough extra space that I suppose I could choose a room to make a "gun room" instead of just a gun closet. I wouldn't wanna have it upstairs and I'm not so sure about the basement either (I may rent out the basement to a friend at some point).

That leaves two bedrooms on the main floor. One of them is my room, and the other is closest to the street with windows so I'd be concerned about someone potentially breaking in through there and immediately having access to all my stuff.

I think it would be cool to do a hidden wall or door but I feel like it would be obvious that there's a closet behind it once someone saw the layout of the other opposing room next to it. I like the idea of a safe inside the closet, though. I'm gonna start working on it this week I'll let you guys know how it goes!
 
If you go that way, you closet has room for a Sturdy 3224-6, and have 8" of width to spare. down side being that the door is only going to open until it hits the door jamb of the closet. Other downside being that you'd only have about 10" of width and 10-12" of depth at the front left of the closet to put shelves in. I'd be inclined to install slat board, but pegboard would work in a pinch (after you bought some 1x2 to stand it off the wall.

You'd get a tiny bit more room with a Liberty Lincoln 25, and spend as much as the Sturdy and get less.

I'd pull the doorknob off the closet and go talk to a door hardware guy and see if you can get the same hardware with a key lock on it. It's a simple thing, but not having nosy parkers look in the closet is a great way to not let loose lips sink ships. If a friend asks why you have a locked closet, just say "oh, insurance papers" or "work stuff."

While out shopping, eyeball a clothes cupboard to stash in the room, as these make a handy places to stash carry cases, range gear and the like, to help not "advertise" gun goodies nearby,

That's my 2¢ at least.
 
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