Price
$75 – $150
Time
1 Day
Difficulty
Easy
Ugh. Wire shelves in linen closets drive me BANANAS. Everything constantly falls over and you have to strategically and carefully place every one token to avoid a domino of everything else on the shelf.
rather than live in frustration and accomplished chaos all the days of my life, I decided to swap out the builder-grade shelves for some simple plywood shelves .
Building shelves in our linen closet is a win-win-win. First, I don ’ t have to worry about everything falling over and slipping through the wire shelves .
second, these plywood shelves are SO pretty. Seriously…I considered permanently removing the closet door once we were done installing them .
Third, we got to add more storage ( and who doesn ’ t need more repositing ). alternatively of sticking with the unoptimized spacing that was in our stream apparatus, we were able to adjust the shelf spacing and add in TWO more shelves .
But if you ’ re felicitous with the current act of shelves in your linen wardrobe, check out Within the Grove ’ s fake floating shelves tutorial. She covered her electrify shelves with plywood to get a very exchangeable look !
P.S. If you ’ ra making truly deeply shelves or you ’ re going to be storing heavy item, this water closet shelving option is the way to go. Today ’ south tutorial is good suited for linen or coating closets !
Alright, let ’ s get down DIYing !
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Tools
- Circular Saw
- Table Saw
- Nail Gun
- Speed Square
- Laser Measurer
- Stud Finder
- Level
The ONLY tools you need to DIY
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How to Build Shelves in a Closet
first we ’ ra lecture about how to build these beautiful closet shelves, then we ’ ll talk about actually installing them .
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STEP 1: MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE
Whenever you ’ ra doing built-ins of any sort, it ’ south imperative that you spend time focusing on the measurements. Always assume that the space you ’ rhenium exercise in is NOT square .
start by checking both back corners of your linen wardrobe using a speed straight. If the walls occupation up with both sides of the speed squarely, you ’ ra golden ! If your walls cable up with one english of your amphetamine square and not the other, you ’ ll want to account for that when making your cuts .
once you understand if one, or both sides are unsquare, it ’ randomness meter to get the measurements. I highly recommend using a laser measurer. not only do they make measuring very fast, it ’ second besides a bunch more accurate than trying to read a videotape measure .
measure at the back of the closet, the middle, and the front man ( well, as army for the liberation of rwanda front as your shelves will stick out ). It ’ s likely that your measurements will be slightly different from the back to the battlefront. If they are, you ’ ll want to account for that when cutting your shelves .
last, you ’ ll want to take these measurements at a few unlike heights in the closet. I know it seems like overkill, but it ’ mho better to spend the clock doing excess measuring up front than having to cut down one-half of your shelves late .
STEP 2: CUT AND TEST
Grab your plywood and cut your shelves to size based on your measurements in tone 1. It ’ s not unheard of that each of your shelves will be slenderly different sizes. If they are, make sure to keep them organized so you know which shelves will end up where .
We cut the plywood on our shelves to be 15″ deep. This will make our shelves 15.75″ cryptic once we add a 1×2 to the front .
Before you move onto any future steps, take a infinitesimal to test out your shelves to see if they are going to fit how you ’ ra expect. Nothing ’ mho more frustrating than getting everything stained and sealed only to realize it doesn ’ thyroxine actually fit and you ’ ll have to cut them down further .
once you ’ re happy with the size of your shelves, cut your 1x2s to match the measurement of the front of each of your shelves. then cut your plywood into 3/4″ strips. You ’ ll need a total of 3 plywood strips per ledge .
1 leach will be cut to match with width of your ledge. The other two will be the depth of your plywood – 3/4″ .
STEP 3: ATTACH 1x2s to PLYWOOD
Apply wood glue to the front of your plywood ledge and then clamp a 1×2 so that the crown is flower with the top of your plywood. Add a few nails to hold the 1×2 in place. Wipe off any wood glue that seeped out.
Remove the clamps and duplicate with your remaining shelves .
STEP 4: PREP AND STAIN
Add wood filler to any nail holes and then sand your shelves with 120 ( if needed ), 180 and 220-grit sandpaper. once your shelves are legato, wipe the surface with interchange fabric to remove any linger dust, then apply pre-stain for the most consistent stain leave .
then apply your stain. We used Minwax Rustic Beige on our shelves. It ’ south cursorily become my front-runner stain coloring material !
STEP 5: SEAL
once your stain has dried, take some time to by rights seal your shelves according to the instructions on the spinal column of your sealer can. We used Minwax Polycrylic in Ultra Flat because it doesn ’ thymine change the semblance or add any shininess .
once you seal your shelves, I ’ vitamin d recommend waiting a few days to a week before installing them to avoid having towels that smell like stain !
How to Install Plywood Shelves in a Closet
STEP 1: REMOVE ANY EXISTING SHELVES
Remove any existing shelves and shelf hardware. Try to remove everything lightly to minimize damage to your wallboard .
STEP 2: PATCH HOLES
Patch any holes that have been left from previous shelves and hardware. We like to apply 2 coats of spackling when patching larger holes. After the spackling is dry, sand it smooth and paint the patches to match the rest of your water closet .
STEP 3: MARK STUDS
Mark each stud along the back and sides of your water closet. Since you just painted, I recommend using videotape to mark your studs rather than a pencil .
STEP 4: DETERMINE SPACING
Decide how much space you would like between each of your shelves. We placed our bed shelf 16″ from the floor and then placed the subscribe boards 11.5″ aside from each early. This will make the acme of one ledge 12″ from the bottom of the 1×2 of the shelf above it .
STEP 5: INSTALL SUPPORT BOARDS
We cut our support boards out of the sheet of plywood and made them .75″ wide. You could besides use 1x2s or 1x3s for the patronize boards .
depart with the supports along the back and then move onto the side supports .
meter where you want your first gear support to go and make indisputable it ’ second level. Pop a nail into each of the stud. If you can hit at least two studs for every ledge, you ’ ra beneficial to stick with that method .
If you ’ re unlucky like us and your side pieces are only able to hit one dot, you ’ ll want to add a wallboard anchor to help hold things up .
here ’ s the best method acting we came up with for the wallboard anchors :
Line your side board up with the back subscribe and make sure it ’ sulfur level. While holding it charge, pre-drill through your support and into the wall where you want the wallboard anchor to be .
Remove the patronize board and add your wallboard anchor. then, screw through the pre-drilled trap precisely adequate indeed that the tiptoe of the sleep together is sticking through your patronize board .
Line your hold board up with the bet on documentation display panel and therefore that the cheat goes into the wallboard anchor. Screw the support circuit board in and then nail it into any stud that it does hit .
If you prefer videos, check out our Instagram stories about this project .
STEP 6: ADD SHELVES
Slide your shelves onto the supports you barely installed. We decided that they fit cozy enough to not need any extra nails or fasteners .
If you feel like your shelves aren ’ thymine secure and might slide, pop a few nails through the clear of the shelves into the defend boards. If you do this, make sure your nails aren ’ t besides long or they ’ ll pop through the bottom of the supports !
STEP 7: PUT EVERYTHING BACK
Before you start throwing everything back in the water closet, take a few minutes to weed out the things you don ’ t actually need or want .
once you have things paired down a little bit, decide which things you want to group together and what shelf you want to place them on .
then decide if you want to add any baskets to help keep things contained and organized. Baskets are a game-changer for fine-looking, organized spaces !
There you have it ! nowadays you know how to build and install shelves in your closet ! Isn ’ t it incredible how big of a different some childlike plywood shelves can make ? ? I used to dread opening this wardrobe and now I sneak a peek about every time I walk by ( evening if I don ’ t need anything ) !
