Homemade Closet Shelves

Closet shelves don't have to look spectacular since they'll be hidden.

Placing shelves in your closet keeps your home from looking too cluttered, and if the shelves are homemade, they won't cost you too much money. Also, since they're out of sight, you don't have to worry about their aesthetic look. Perhaps a quick priming or staining of the wood will suffice, and cheaper metal brackets may be all you need. Look around your home for old unused items like cabinets or 1x6-inch planks sitting at the back of your garage; it's time to put them to good use and hide some of that household clutter.

Things You'll Need

• Wooden boxes or cabinets
• Rag
• Wood filler
• Sandpaper (fine grit)
• Paint or stain
• Pencil
• Spirit level
• Stud finder
• Electric drill
• Brackets
• 2-inch wood screws
• Pencil eraser
• 1/2-inch wood screws

Instructions

1. Dismantle old wooden boxes or cabinets by removing all of the screws or nails. Keep the pieces that will serve as shelves. Measure the closet so you know how wide the shelves need to be. Wipe away any dust or grime with a warm rag.

2. Fill large screw holes with wood filler, and sand the wood with fine sandpaper once the filler has dried. Remember that you probably don't need great looking shelves since they'll be hidden, so don't spend too much time on this. Paint or stain your wood if you want, although some people may prefer a bare wood look.

3. Mark the desired height of each shelf in your closet with a pencil. Place a spirit level on each mark, and draw a level line on the wall. Run a stud finder along each line, marking the location of each stud. Choose if you want to have a bracket at the stud locations near the ends of each shelve or have another one in the middle. (This will depend on the weight of the things going on the shelves.)

4. Using 2-inch wood screws, screw in the brackets into the studs, making sure that the top of the brackets rest on the pencil line. Using an eraser, remove all of the pencil lines. Rest the shelves on the brackets, and connect them with 1/2-inch wood screws.

Tips & Warnings

• Take care if you are dismantling old wooden boxes or cabinets because old screws and nails can be rusty and sharp.

References

• "Home Improvement 1-2-3"; Benjamin W. Allen and Christopher Cavanaugh; 1995.