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Installing a closet in the very corner of an old house. Note, I don't have a proper king stud, but two 2x4s with a plywood spacer in the middle. This is a load bearing wall.

I'm working with very limited space. Right now, it looks like I will end up with an 18 1/4" door which is inconvenient and looks ridiculously small. However, if I use 3/4" plywood instead of a regular 2x4, I would end up with a 19" door which to me is worth it. This is on the top floor, so there's no wall above it, but there is a ceiling joist roughly in the middle of the door. The floor in the attic is plywood screwed to the joists.

Is this OK to do? enter image description here

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    We need more pictures all around. Nothing - at all - about this looks right.
    – DMoore
    Sep 6, 2020 at 20:07
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    Not okay from the initial picture. Why is the new "king" set like that? (What's going on with the old stud we can see?) Why didn't you make the header 3-1/2" wider and prevent all these issues?
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Sep 6, 2020 at 20:31
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    Is this header added because the door is in a bearing wall? You could have notched the existing flat stud, 1 1/2" deep X 3 1/2" and added the king stud notched the same way if it is a bearing wall. Code even allows for metal plates to replace jack studs, if you get the right one. But it will only work on one side. But is the wall is non bearing, none of this will matter. By the way, is "the very corner" referring to an outside corner at 2 exterior walls?
    – Jack
    Sep 6, 2020 at 21:06
  • One exterior wall, and the door is in the load bearing interior wall. The darker wood stud is original and is oriented sideways for whatever reason. Taking it out would require too much plaster wall repair. So I just added a plywood packer and a regular 2x4 to strengthen it. I did not make the header wider because I thought that having a king is more important than having a jack.
    – Wynne
    Sep 7, 2020 at 5:35

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Understand the constraints of the existing framing. I'd have probably kept the new vertical 2x4 you added 3.5" shorter (along with the plywood spacer you added), and made the header stick out 3.5" on that side to rest on top of that new 2x4. You'd essentially be using the existing vertical 2x4 as the king stud and your new 2x4 as the jack stud, just oriented differently than normal. This would at least give the header a solid piece to rest on, rather than relying on the sheer strength of the nails/screws you used to remain in the proper position. This is referred to as a "lap" joint.

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