Stop staring and start sewing!

Building shelves in a closet - how we did it

So my husband finally has his own man closet (which is in his own man office!). And I get to move his fishing/camping/hiking stuff out of our master closet. Win win. We're both pretty darn happy right now.

Here's what we started with. This is the only bedroom downstairs and we've been using it as a kids room / haphazard guest room for the past 12 years.  It's been this color since we painted it right after we moved in and I'm so over it. Plus the carpet was disgusting after all these years. But anyway, about those shelves...

Here's how the closet looked after we finished building shelves into the bathroom (this is the actual back of the shelves).

We spend about 80.00 on supplies which included two huge 5/8" MDF boards (31.00 each) that we had cut down to the sizes we needed while we were at Home Depot. We trimmed them a little at home but the hardest part was already done. We also bought caulking and drywall screws. We used paint we already had.

We found these 2x4s on the clearance pile at Home Depot for 70% off. Joey attached them to the wall so they'd be flush with the back of the shelves.

He then attached a sheet of 5/8" MDF to the back.

Here's a close up of the the type of pilot hole he made for the screws. I wanted them sunk flat so this did the trick.

For the shelf supports he cut more of the MDF and used glue and the nail gun to attach them.

Here's what they looked like on the wall (this was just after we''d already attached the lowest shelf).

The top shelf (sorry for the blurry iPhone pic) and lowest shelf (above) go all the way back to the original wall so they're 6 inches deeper than the shelves in the middle. The top shelf went in a little wonky since the walls are a little off (I'm blaming the walls) so there was a gap that I felt was too big to fill with spackle.

I found a piece of scrap trim and used a little glue and nails and once I spackled and painted it it was just fine.

Here it is coming along nicely. That nail gun has made our lives so much easier because projects are a lot more fun and quick. Great investment.

I didn't get a pic before painting but once the shelves went in we decided it would be best to add support slats under the back of the middle shelves since we wanted to feel confident we could put heavy-ish stuff on the shelf since they're pretty wide. Much better.

So this is what it looked like after all the shelves were in but before the finish work. We were starting to get a little giddy at this point (and exhausted).

I brushed the raw edges of the shelves to seal it from absorbing paint and it worked great. That idea came from this blog post which is a great resource for building shelves.

Lots and lots of caulking.

 

Before painting we sealed off the area with the tarp (1.99 at walmart).

We wrapped it around the door frame just to keep the overspray from being a problem. I highly highly recommend this.

Joey sprayed with 3 coats total using our nifty power sprayer. Another great investment and a very reasonable price.

So bright and new! And all that storage space.

So now we're loading it with his man supplies but the top shelf is for guest room supplies (air mattress, bedding, etc) since this is the guest room (one I can be proud of now). So much more useful than a traditional shelf/closet rod type of set up.

Here's a peek at the other side of the room before we got started.

And here it is now with the carpet gone, new pain (Behr Wheat Bread), new curtains, and fun prints from an old calendar. The new flooring is undecided so this is it for now.

We're actually making a huge dent in our "to-do" list and it feels good. We'll probably take a small break right now though so we can have a little bit of summer fun.

How we installed shelves in our bathroom wall

We finally completed our last built in. Unless I find another spot (see one of our favorite built in projects here). This bathroom shelf idea for our guest bath (the main bath downstairs) has been stuck in my brain for years and after all that time it only took about 1 day to complete it (and 8.00!). The only storage this room came with was the space under the vanity (and I really want to toss it for a pedestal sink) so now it's transformed and has oodles of storage. I'm really excited to share the process since it was very uncomplicated and took pretty basic tools. 

Last fall, when we spruced up the bathroom with fresh paint and linens, I included a picture of my dream shelves idea in the blog post. Below is a picture of the vision and the result side by side. Nice.

Here is the wall we started with. It's right next to the shower and the back of it is the closet of the office/guest room.

I started with a piece of paper (the same measurements as my shelf unit) taped in place where I wanted the shelf to go.  I used a shelf I've had for years and I think it was an Expedit from IKEA which has been discontinued but their KALLAX shelves are nearly identical.

Here is a before shot of the closet directly behind the bathroom wall. I hammered a few holes to make sure there was no wiring. The only obstacle I found was the wall stud going straight down the middle.

We pushed a stretched out and sharpened wire hanger through the four corners on the bathroom side to mark the spot directly behind it. You could use a long screwdriver as well (we just couldn't find ours).  My husband scored a bunch of lines with the utility knife and we put our teenager to work tearing apart the wall. Teenagers are great when you need something destroyed.

We did the same thing on the other side and now you can see where we made an opening all the way through (and the stud is right there in the middle).

Hubby sawed the stud out and repurposed the board as the support across the bottom. He leveled it and nailed it securely.

Now it was time to install my crusty old shelf. It's really been a great shelf so I'm happy to give it a new life.

Here it is. Perfect fit!

We nailed through the shelf into the 2x4 to hold it securely at the bottom. I patched and painted the holes later.

On the backside we anchored it with a corner brace screwed into the stud.

We were able to scrounge enough trim pieces from the garage to avoid an added expense and trip to the hardware store. The back beadboard is something I got from a lady in a community group on facebook. We spent 8.00 and didn't have to drive far to get it. She said she offered it to me first (even though there were others before me who expressed an interest) because I said "I can come get it today" so I'm going to remember that!

We had to piece the beadboard together so here's what the back looks like now. The shelf sticks out about 6 inches so it really didn't affect the space as much as we'd anticipated. We still need to patch and trim it out but for now I can just shut the door.  Update: Here's the finished closet.

I caulked it and gave it two coats of white gloss paint and now I'm in love.

Here it is now all decked out for guests!  So much storage! 

I bought some cute containers for the mundane supplies like cotton balls.  My husband Joey had already made me that little box with pallet wood and it's perfect for wash cloths. I added a couple of candles which make it smell good even when they're not lit. The little plate of chalk is for the door (people leave the funniest notes there!).

I found these metal lacy boxes at World Market and was kind of freaked out at their price (30.00 each) but when I remembered that I'd only spent 8.00 on the whole project thus far I said "why not?" and splurged. They are perfect. Just perfect.

I go in this room about 10 times a day just to stand and stare at it all.

I even found a darling bath mat at Ross to complete it all.

That's it! Feel free to ask questions!