Cheap shelves

Shelves are great! Everyone knows time is money, shelves make things easier to see at a quick glance. Shelves also help you stay organized. Additionally, in moist areas, shelves can keep things off the ground, and prevent dampness. Bugs, mice and other things might want to eat these things, and shelves make it harder for them to reach it.

Modern day shelves tend to be constructed with particle board, flimsy sheet metal, plastic, or a combination of all three. All of these modern shelves are specifically designed for failure on purpose. This is so that you can re-purchases their product over and over again. Corporations are notorious for these tactics.

Building shelves can be done economically. Rough cut lumber is a fraction of the cost of a finished piece. I can always find rough cut 12 foot by 16 foot boards for under $20 USD. Three of these boards, as shown here, adds 48 square foot of shelf space. Additional cost for this project included brackets that could be made with wood. Screws that I so happened to have on hand. And 2 inch by 2 inch, or what ever scrap lumber you may have lying around.

How its done

First is the obvious. Find a space, and get the materials. Move stuff out of the way and organize at the same time.

The next thing to do, is to find all of your studs in the wall. As you can see, the ones here are exposed. If yours are not exposed, not only find the studs, but try to find the exact center of each one and run a line down them. After this is done, you can figure out where you are going to put your brackets.

There were five brackets used per shelve here. It was every 3rd stud, leaving 2 studs with no brackets at all. The wall was a little bowed, but not so much that it would cause an issue.

Here you can see how the bracket is centered on the stud for stability, and anchored with three wood screws. Also into the shelve it self are shorter screws to prevent the shelf from shifting. Where the wall was bowed, and the brackets protruded, a hammer was utilized to bend the tip up, and fasten into place with a screw as well.