DIY Custom Storage Shelving

You guys, guess what?! Kieran made DIY Custom Storage Shelving for our basement! The project took a few weekends to complete but with proper measuring and some creative problem-solving the project turned out amazingly! Come see how two novices built the storage they desperately needed!

Dude, you guys, today is a big day. It’s a day of celebration and immense joy. Today is the day Kieran and I can finally unpack our beloved belongings which we haven’t seen in 4 years. Why 4 years? OK, here’s the situation. My parents went away on a week’s vacation and they left the keys to the brand new Porsche… whoops sorry about that. Anytime I say here’s the situation I automatically start singing Parents Just Don’t Understand by Will Smith. That happens to you too, right? Ahem, I digress.

Anyway, In 2014, Kieran and I put the majority of our belongings in storage so we could stage/sell our condo in Chicago. Unfortunately, selling the condo took a long ass time. We moved to Portland in March 2015 where we stayed in an Airbnb for 2 months then moved into an apartment for roughly 9 months. We didn’t fully unpack because we were house hunting too. We’d figured why bother unpacking when we’re just going to move again. Little did we know it would take us close to a year to close on a house, but that’s a story for another time. In fact, I’d like to forget that particular story indefinitely, house hunting in Portland sucks all the balls.

Fast forward to us moving into our house in 2016. Our home is adorable but she’s elderly and hasn’t kept up with the storage needs of the 21st century. We have 3-4 closets which are tiny and oddly shaped. So now we live in a home that can fit all of our stuff but we literally have nowhere to put it. We pushed our boxed up belongings into the crawl space and focused our efforts on making over the main level of the house, knowing someday we’d finally see it again. I’m thrilled to announce today is finally that day.

Click on the video to see how Kieran made DIY Custom Storage Shelving:

Kieran continues to impress and amaze me every single day. You guys, he’s not an experienced builder. Kieran’s 100% self-taught. He watches YouTube channels like This Old House and other tutorials and when the host says, You’re capable of making such and such too. Kieran thinks, hell yeah I can do that!  Kieran managed to make shelving sturdy enough to withstand a damn earthquake or tornado! I shit you not, I’m hiding under these shelves if anything goes down! I’m confident I’ll come out unscathed. Kieran put together DIY Custom Storage Shelving that fits perfectly in our basement. He built our stuff its new home 😀

Here is how we made these shelves in case you want some insight on how to make you’re own!

First, we draw a basic design on a whiteboard so we can envision what the project will look like.

Second, we put painters tape on the ground to get a feel for how deep we wanted the shelving to be. We decided on 20 inches.

Third, once we got a feel for the depth we wanted for the shelving, Kieran drew and measured each component, or each shelf, of the project. Pictured below, the rectangles on the left are measurements for the bottom shelves, the rectangles on the right are for the top. The top shelf was decidedly shorter because a pipe and window were in the way.

Fourth, we hit up the hardware store for lumber and other supplies (ie nails, screws, ect). For this project we bought:

(35) 8 ft 2 x 3’s – we only needed 33 but purchased 2 extra in case an error was made

(4) sheets of plywood – Kieran clamped them together to prevent them from bowing/warping. We used the leftover plywood in art projects around the house.

Fifth – Kieran goes to town and works his magic!

I asked Kieran to give me some more insight on how the shelves were made. He said:

To design these shelves, I started off coming up with the measurements for the flat U shaped surface of the shelves. I had to account for about 2-3 inches on each side to leave room for the legs (which would be attached to the outsides of the shelves) and a little extra for imperfections in the walls/floor. The bottom two shelves were the same, and the top just had one shorter end. I split the U shaped shelves into 3 different rectangles per shelf, ending up with 9 rectangles.

For framing, I initially planned for 2×4’s, but it seemed 2×3’s worked even better. I created a frame for each of the rectangles, with 1 or 2 supporting pieces in the center.

I cut 9 pieces of plywood to the dimensions of the rectangles to act as the surface for the shelves. Then, I estimated the number of legs (and their heights) needed and cut those out of 2x3s.

The plan was then to screw the rectangles together, screw those into the legs making sure everything is level, then nailing the plywood on top.

The only oddity was on the back shelves, there was a beam we needed to account for, so I cut room in the frames/plywood for that.

Be sure to watch the video above for more information!

One little downside to this project was not knowing how sappy the 2 x 3’s were! Since we used the wood for storage shelving, we didn’t bother treating the wood in any fashion to prevent the sap. We also forwent sanding and staining the shelves to save time. We love our belongings but they don’t need to sit on pristine, freshly stained shelves. The shelves need to be functional, not pretty. Plus, they are tucked away in our basement’s root cellar so no one will see them except for us.

As far as cost, this project was more expensive than buying plastic/flimsy shelving at the store.  However, it was less expensive than buying the good quality and sturdy store-bought shelving we wanted for the space. Plus, there was no guarantee we could find store-bought shelving that would fit the space so perfectly. Kieran’s design fits the room like a glove providing us with the maximum storage possibilities.

I can hardly believe we get to unpack. We’ve had this project on the docket for over a year so it feels like a real accomplishment to finish. I haven’t seen my stuff in so long I don’t even remember what we own! I do recall having a ton of crafting supplies, electronics, and other odds and ends that we can store on the shelves. A lot of my kitchen stuff will remain in boxes until our kitchen is complete but I have enough unpacked to get by… for a while. You best believe I’m gunning to finish the kitchen storage ASAP. Gah, that’s going to be another momentous day. If you’re outside and hear a faint, The hills are alive, with the sounds of stoooooooorrrrraaaaaggggggge, don’t worry it’s just me, shouting from the rooftops.

To say I’m stoked to unpack is an understatement. Have you seen the popular unboxing videos that young kids do on the YouTubes when they purchase new gear, makeup, electronics? Kieran and I were thinking about doing an unboxing video of our own stuff. Leave a comment below if you think that would be funny 🙂

Alright, everyone, that’s a wrap on my DIY Custom Storage Shelving post. If you have any questions about the shelving leave a comment below. If us two yahoos can watch a couple YouTube videos to build things, surely you can too! We’ll answer any questions you have to help you along the way! See you next week, have a fun and safe Memorial Weekend! Thank you to all of the men and woman serving in the military. Sorry our military industrial complex is running rampant. 🙁

Thank you for being apart of the Shock Munch community, I appreciate you!

Sincerely,
Christina

Do you love to build and do DIY projects for your home? You DO?! That’s freaking awesome! After seeing our project, would you have done anything differently? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below! If you like our recipes, hiking adventures, and projects, consider following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and/or Instagram!

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