How to DIY Built-In Shelving 3 Different Ways

Is there a space in your home that’s a little awkward and unused? Do you need more storage? Do you like to save money and build things? My guess is that you’ve already asked yourself these questions and it’s why you’ve landed here. However, maybe you started reading this for a different reason and if you answered yes to any of these questions, you might benefit from creating built-in storage.

I love older homes that are full of character and that character often takes the form of built-ins. Our house in Cleveland was built in 2011 and has the styling of your typical cookie-cutter, builder-grade home. Compared to a home built 50+ years ago, I would say many homes like ours never progressed past puberty… stay with me here!… they’re a little awkward and they often lack the detail, timelessness, and refinement of a mature home. We are constantly attempting to take our house past the pre-pubescent stage (that word always makes me cringe and it’s my analogy, haha) and give the style, form, and function that we so desperately want it to have.

Built-in shelving is a great place to start: it looks good, it gives purpose to an unused space, and it’s great for storage- practical or pretty. We have three different areas that we have added built-in shelving to our home. Well, at least 2 spaces. One of the three is debatably built-in. They all serve different purposes, are in different rooms, and thus, have been designed, built, and installed different ways. Matt designed and built all of them and I contributed to the look and sizing. Let’s get into it!

Space #1: Empty Nook Behind a Door

Up until I was pregnant with our second son, the third bedroom was a guest space, primarily for my parents who live 90 minutes away. It’s where we kept antique furniture from my great-grandmother and stored winter coats and extra pillows in the closet. When it came time to convert the space into a nursery, it was the first time we had to think about how the space would best function on a daily basis (and also when we decided to build a new guest room in the basement for visitors. More on that later). The room is basically the shape of Utah, but flipped left to right, and that is because of the closet. Behind the door was a 1′ x 4′ nook of emptiness- and a cold air return. This is the perfect place to add shelving, in my opinion, and that’s exactly what we did (like you didn’t see that coming!). These built-ins are home to books, toys, puzzles, stuffed animals, and even extra diapers and wipes. We also have a hamper and two toy bins underneath.

The steps below are for shelves that have a back supporting wall and a wall on each side. You will make U-shaped supports with a board resting on top and a front edge to hide the supports underneath. We chose the poplar boards because they are a strong hardwood that was available at Home Depot and in the dimension we needed. If you want to stain your shelves instead of painting them, you will want a matching hardwood for the 1″x 2″, so in our case, poplar. You can use any type of hardwood you prefer.

Materials used:

• 1″x 1″ square dowels for the shelf support
• 1″x 2″ poplar boards for the front edge
• 1″x 12″ poplar boards for the shelves
• 2 1/2″ wood screws
• Finish nails
• Wood filler
• Paintable latex caulk
• Paint of your choice
• Water-based poly-acrylic

Process:

1. Measure your space to determine the amount of materials you will need. We made shelves for a space that was 4′ wide and 1′ deep. We chose the 1″x 12″ Poplar boards, not only to fit the space but also to fit our intended contents for the shelves, mainly books. Make sure to account for another 3/4″ for your front edging. Before you run off to the hardware store or lumber yard also be sure to…
2. Determine the height off the ground for your first shelf. We wanted to fit a clothes hamper underneath so we started with that. Next, decide the space you want to have between each shelf. We used our tallest book as an example and then added space for comfort and what appeared visually pleasing to the space. That gave us 5 shelves to build.

3. You will want to start by cutting the square dowel supports for the back and two side walls. We placed the full length dowel along the back wall and subtracted the dimension of that dowel (3/4″ nominally) from the side length of the shelves (12″) and cut the dowels for the side supports to that dimension. You don’t have to take the 1″x 2″ front board into consideration at this time because it will be used to provide support and hide the dowels from sight by being attached to the front of the shelf itself. You should, however, take the front board dimensions into the overall design of the shelf so it fits in your space.

4. Starting with the back wall, find and mark the studs, then place the dowel against the wall and level it before screwing through the dowel and into the studs. Using the back dowel as a guide along with your level, repeat the steps above with the dowels for the side walls.
5. Next, attach the 1″x 12″ poplar board to the 1″x 2″ facing vertically so it is level with the top of the shelf and hangs below the intended shelf. Use a finish nailer along the face of the 1″x 2″ into the 1″x 12″ shelf board.

6. Before attaching the shelf to the wall supports, fill the nail holes with wood filler and let dry according to the instructions and then sand smooth. Dust off your shelves and apply your paint (or stain). Once dry, apply 3 to 4 coats of the poly-acrylic. Read the instructions to determine any sanding needs between coats. For ours, we sanded between coats 3 and 4. *Note: if you want to fill the nail holes for the next step- there are only 2- you may want to install the shelves before painting. We never see these nail holes so it was worth it to make the painting process easier and paint before installation. This is completely up to you.*
7. Now it’s time to attach the shelf! This is where your leveling from step 4 pays-off so don’t skip it. Slide the shelf in on top of the wall supports then put one finish nail in each of the 2 back corners. Caulk along the side and back edges to have a seamless look.

Space #2: Add a Wall

Okay, so this is probably the least likely scenario for most people BUT if you’re not into adding a wall somewhere, this project would still work in an empty nook in your home like in our son’s nursery. These shelves are basically the same but with one improvement to the design. Well, sort of. We also made a mistake omitting one of the pieces from the instructions for the nursery shelves. Read on and all shall be clear!

Remember I mentioned adding a guest room to the basement? This is why we added built-in shelving, but not in the actual guest room. When we added the extra bedroom we also chose to close in the utility area of our basement, so we ended up building two rooms. The furnace, Pex plumbing hub (which I call the Squid), and sump-pump are all next to/under the stairs, so we built a wall extending from the stairs to about 20 feet past the stairs to create and enclose both spaces.

This left us with dead space under that staircase so we built a 68″ high x 46″ wide x 18″ deep indentation into the wall and then added the shelving. We also added an outlet because one purpose for these shelves was to house our turntable, speakers, and vinyl collection, along with board and card games, and toys (our boys are the only grandchildren currently hence- SO many toys).

This process is the same as number 1 with a few slight alterations that could be combined with the nursery shelf process to look even better.

Use materials from number one but swap the following:

• Use 1″x 2″ primed pine or any hard wood in place of the 1″x 1″ dowels
• Optional (what we did)- use finished shelving boards in place of the poplar hardwood
• We omitted the 1″x 2″ board from the front since we used finished shelving but we don’t recommend leaving it out and we are planning to add one soon to keep the shelves from bowing

Process:

It’s the same as above but with one improvement. You probably noticed the painted screw heads sticking out in the nursery shelves. I really don’t notice them. In fact, I didn’t even realize they were there until I took the detailed photos for this blog post! However, they really bother Matt and so for this version he countersunk the screws and then used wood filler over top of them and painted the supports. He tried to countersink the screws in the nursery but they wouldn’t grip into the studs and he’s not entirely sure why. But, it worked in the basement and it’s the way to go if you don’t want to see the screws (and a much better option if you’re staining instead of painting).

We initially left out the front edging because 1.) the supports looked good and did not need to be hidden and 2.) the finished shelving boards are a contrasting color and didn’t need a finished edge. That was a mistake. As it turns out, the front edge offers a lot of support and without it, these shelves are bowing under the weight of their contents along a wide span (~4 ft.). The boards are just as strong, the contents are similar weight so it really is missing the support of the front 1″x 2″ that has allowed for the bowing.

Space #3: Above the TV or Other Furniture/Cabinets/Appliances

It’s no secret that if you’re looking for extra storage the direction you should go is up. Use your wall space for vertical storage- just visit any IKEA to see how that works, haha (I really do miss an overwhelming half-day’s stroll through IKEA). You can put shelving anywhere you have a wall that will fit whatever serves your needs best, be it practical or otherwise. We built a 7- foot floating shelf to use for art above our TV in the living room. This build is truly a floating shelf and purely for design, though it can certainly be built and used for practical purposes as well. I want you to know that very long shelves are very difficult to style, especially when they are not very deep and when they are not in multiples. In its current stage of styling, I basically un-styled it and have left it very minimal because it looks most balanced that way and the shelf itself has become the art.

For this build, Matt created a wooden skeleton, basically, and bolted it to the studs and then built a box to slide onto the support structure and secured it with screws from the top. You could secure from either the bottom or the top. We chose the top because the shelf is high up on the wall and we can see the bottom of the shelf but not the top. The exterior box is really easy to remove for repainting the wall it’s on- we just did that recently.

Materials:

• Unfinished 2″x 2″ boards for the interior support
• 1″x 4″ pine boards (or other hardwood) for the box
• 3/8″x 3-1/2″ lag bolts
• 1/2″ flat washers
• Finish nails
• 3″ wood screws
• 2 small #6 x 1″ wood screws
• Wood glue
• Wood filler
• Stain or paint of your choice
• Polyurethane

Process:

1. Determine where you want the floating shelf and how long, deep, and tall you want it to be. We wanted to display art above our TV and we wanted it to be the same length as the TV plus the record sleeve art we planned to hang on either side of the television, so for us that ended up being 7-feet (84″).
2. Once you have your measurements then you can determine the size and number of boards you need. We built the shelf box with a raised lip on the top edge to prevent art from falling. You can adjust the shelf dimensions to suit your needs. For the interior support structure, you will need to determine how much support your shelf will need so you know how many 2″x 2″s to get. We placed our supports every 2-feet for the 4.25 in. x 7 ft. shelf. The deeper your shelf is, the closer I would put your supports together.
3. Start by marking the studs — we did this with painter’s tape above where our shelf will go — and prepare to attach the 2″x 2″ to the wall, which should run the total length of your shelf minus 3/4″ on each side to account for the sides of the pine board box. For us that was 84″ – 1.5″ = 82.5″. Be sure to center the board on the total width of your shelf then copy the stud marks onto the 2″x 2″.
4. Next, cut short 2″x 2″ finger supports to the length of your shelf minus 2.25″ (1-1/2″ for the wall 2″x 2″ and 3/4″ for the front board of the shelf box). For us that was 3.75″ – 2.25″ = 1.5″ supports out of a 2″x 2″. We attached the short finger supports to the long 2″x 2″ by using a single 3″ wood screw through the back of the soon-to-be-wall-mounted long 2″x 2″ board running all the way through the short support fingers.
5. Drill pilot holes in the long 2″x 2″ board on the stud markings using a 1/4″ or smaller drill bit. Place the board on the wall on your center mark, then use a socket wrench or impact driver to screw in the lag bolts. Make sure you put one 1/2″ washer on the lag bolt before screwing it into the pilot holes for additional holding power.

6. To build the shelf box, cut your pine (or wood of your choice) to have 2 boards of equal length that are the length of your shelf minus 1-1/2″ for the top and bottom of the shelf. The front board for your shelf needs to be the full length of the shelf, for us 84″. Cut 2 boards of equal size to form the sides of the box. We built ours with a raised 1/2″ lip, so if you plan to do the same, be sure to make them the same height as the front board so the lip wraps all the way around the shelf. The other important thing to consider is that the box should fit snug against the support. For our shelf, we used 1″x 4″ pine boards for the top, bottom, front, and sides of the shelf. We wanted the front board to be seamless, so we cut the two sides of the box to be the total depth of the shelf minus the 3/4″ nominal width of the front face of the shelf. Wood glue and securely clamp the boards together in your box shape, finish nail through the front and sides and let cure for at least 24 hours. Wood fill and lightly sand according to the instructions on your product.
7. Finish with 3 coats of the stain of your choice (we use Minwax Polyshades in Mission Oak), sanding lightly between coats, then 2 coats of polyurethane.
8. Slide your box onto the support structure and attach at the top (or bottom depending on where your shelf is) with small #6 wood screws, one in each corner. Et vóila!

BONUS: Closet

We have a nicely sized and oddly shaped walk-in closet in our owner’s suite. The odd shape is a result of needing to move the garage after staking the house and realizing what was on the original blueprints was too big for the lot. What I did notice is that there is a lovely little notched-out area at the back that would be a perfect place to add semi-floating shelves to use for shoe storage. We would most likely use scenario 2 from this post but definitely add the front board during the build! Lesson learned 😉

I hope that one of these options helps you solve any shelving, storage, or style issues in your home. Go poke around your house and see if you have any empty spaces just begging for some built-ins and do let me know if/when you install them! If you have any questions or need clarification please connect with me here in the comments or DM me on Instagram.

~Meghan + Matt