How to make shelves with their own hands: a step by step master class and a selection of simple drawings

The usual cabinet furniture is gradually losing its relevance as part of the interior. It is increasingly replaced by shelves made with our own hands.

The use of shelves in the design of the room, helps to visually expand the space, increase the volume. And the manufacture with their own hands makes it unusual, unique, adding a special zest to the style of decoration and helps to save the family budget well.

Materials and Tools

You can make shelves out of anything. In the choice of materials can only be limited by imagination and finances. That is why, you can find many examples of making shelves from improvised materials: ordinary boards, plywood, used furniture and even construction pallets.

To make a reliable and beautiful shelf is not so difficult. You will need a little carpentry knowledge and a small set of tools:

• an electric jigsaw or hacksaw,
• A drill with a drill bit, self-tapping screws,
• screwdriver or screwdriver,
• tape measure, square,
• sandpaper of different density.

The material used may be a board 20 cm wide and 1-2 cm thick, plywood 5-6 mm thick, chipboard or other materials of your choice.

Shelf options

Shelves can be both open, where you can easily see the contents, and closed, equipped with doors.

They differ in the materials of manufacture - wood, mirror, glass, plastic. Made in the form of open cantilevered racks.

Can be placed either in corners, using both walls, or directly along one wall. Can be with a back wall or of open type. Designed with right angles or rounded.

Corner shelf

To make your own corner shelf is easy enough. Having decided where the shelf will be installed, take the dimensions and prepare everything you need.

As the material you can use wooden boards, or plywood. For guides, you can use a wooden bar 30/30 mm or something similar:

• Mark the necessary lengths of the sides on the workpiece. Since - as the walls and corners are not always straight, measure the length of the outer side facing the room. This is necessary to do so that the shelf is tight, without gaps, adjacent to the walls. With a hacksaw or an electric jigsaw we saw off the workpiece.
• Apply the bars for the rails to the workpiece. We draw lines so that after trimming, the rails do not protrude beyond the contours of the shelf and cut with a hacksaw.
• Immediately mark and drill holes for attaching to the wall. Finished parts are sanded with an emery cloth from burrs and irregularities and painted or varnished.
• According to the fixing holes in the rails, mark and drill holes in the wall, in which dowels are inserted. Fix the strips with screws of suitable length.
• The shelf is glued to the ready-made rails.

Shoe rack

If the situation took you by surprise, urgently need a shelf for shoes, and to the store is far away, or need to save money, it is quite possible to do with handrail materials.

Improvised shoe rack can be made yourself from plastic crates for vegetables. They can be purchased inexpensively in vegetable stores or on private ads.

To make a shelf, you will need several plastic vegetable crates, pieces of old oilcloth or linoleum, a metal hacksaw and universal glue:

• The first thing to do is to take the crate and remove the sidewall by sawing off with a metal hacksaw.
• Having removed the side piece on each drawer, they are stacked on top of each other, inserting the legs into the appropriate holes.
• You can do this by fixing them with any universal glue, making the shelf stronger. Or you can leave them as they are, so that you can easily take everything apart.
• Measure to the size of the bottom of the drawer cloth or linoleum and put it on the bottom of each drawer.

Now the water from the shoes on the top tiers won't stain the shoes underneath!

A shelf for books

Ways to make a shelf for books, a great many. But, one more will not be superfluous! To make a bookshelf - rack you will need a sheet of plywood 5 - 10 mm thick, a wooden bar 50/50 mm, an electric jigsaw or a hacksaw, sandpaper and screws with a screwdriver.

Several rectangular blanks of the required size are sawed from plywood. A wooden bar is sawn into 30 cm pieces. All blanks are well sanded with sandpaper and painted or varnished. When everything dries, begin assembling.

To the first shelf from the floor, 4 bars are screwed to the bottom as legs. And five on top, as a support for the next shelf. And these steps are repeated until you have the desired number of rows, obtaining a lightweight and durable shelf for books.

Wall shelf

The first thing to do is to take measurements of the place where you plan to install the shelf, draw a sketch and decide on the material for manufacturing.

Having prepared everything you need, start marking and sawing the material:

• With the help of a tape measure from the edge of the board the desired length and under the angle draw a straight line perpendicular to the length, this will be the boundary of the length of our shelf.
• Saw the workpiece along this line with an electric jigsaw or hacksaw, trying to make the cut as even as possible. For a cleaner and neater cut it is advisable to use a saw with fine teeth.
• Next, measure and cut another piece of the same size - the top of the shelf.
• Then on the rest of the material measure out the size of the desired height of the future shelf and cut off two such blanks - the future sidewalls. Carefully sand the resulting blanks, removing all the irregularities and burrs.
• After that, fasten all the parts together with screws. To workpiece when screwing in does not crack, under the screw is drilled a hole a little smaller.
• On the backs of the sides mount brackets for hanging furniture - elongated metal plates with round holes for fastening to the side of the shelf, and a pear-shaped hole for hanging furniture on the dowel - a nail.
• The final step is painting. At this stage, any wood filler masks all kinds of defects - gaps, irregularities, traces of screws. When the putty dries, everything is sanded again with sandpaper, and covered with paint or varnish. After complete drying, you can hang in place.
• Having put the shelf on the place where it is planned to fix it, with a pencil or a marker mark the points of the future fasteners. Hammer or impact drill make holes in the wall, usually 6 mm in diameter, where you put dowel-nail 6/40, not screwing to stop at 5 - 7 mm. Mounting is ready, you can hang the shelf.

Shelves on flexible hangers

Shelves suspended from ropes, cords and straps are very popular. They can look unusual, diverse, bringing brightness and unexpectedness to a familiar design.

But at the same time, they fully retain their functions and are as strong and stable as traditional shelves. And they are suitable for storing a variety of things. From heavy flower pots and dishes, to books and light accessories.

To make a hanging shelf, prepare everything you need in advance:

• 4 pieces of about 20 mm thick boards;
• braided rope 8-10 mm in size - 4 meters;
• a drill bit bigger in diameter than the string;
• 2 mounting hooks;
• marker,
• impact drill or punch.

Manufacturing process:

• At a distance of 2 cm from the edge, in the corners, on the perimeter of the board mark the holes. Drill holes for the rope. Paint the workpiece with paint, and after it dries, cover with varnish. If you want to preserve the natural color and wood grain, well sand the surface with sandpaper and varnish.
• Drill holes in the wall with a hammer. Insert dowels and screw mounting hooks. Cut four pieces of one-meter rope. Tie a knot at the end of the rope and pass the free edge through the board.
• Tie a knot in the rope around the edge of the shelf and hang it on the hook. If it is necessary to adjust the position of the shelf, to remove any bias, tie knots at the hooks. You can also adjust the height of the shelf.

Using a similar scheme, but with more boards and longer ropes, you can create multilevel shelving.

Shelf from a drawer

When a household has an extra drawer from a cabinet, don't rush to throw it away. From it you can make a good shelf of the open type, with internal divisions. It goes well with different interiors and is suitable for different rooms.

Materials and tools:

• Unneeded furniture drawer;
• Paint in the right color with a brush;
• Plywood, or board;
• PVA glue;
• furniture bracket;
• screwdriver;
• saw or jigsaw;
• A piece of fabric or wallpaper.

Making:

1. Cut interior baffles to desired length from plywood. Treat the blanks thoroughly with sandpaper. If the furniture box still has fittings, unscrew and putty everything.
2. Paint all parts with paint. On the back glass of the box, glue a piece of fabric or wallpaper that fits. Insert and glue the interior dividers.
3. On the back surface, fasten the brackets to fix the furniture to the wall with screws. Drill holes in the wall, fix dowel nails, not turning them to 5 - 7 mm. and hang the shelf on the wall.

The shelf with a hanger

Having decided to change furniture, do not rush to throw out the old one. It can serve you, becoming the basis for your crafts. For example, the back of a kitchen chair can be an unusual shelf - a hanger.

It's all very simple. In addition to an old chair, you will need a small piece of plywood or a thin board, hooks for furniture, some screws, paint and a standard set of tools:

1. The back is cut from the chair to the desired length.
2. Saw a shelf of suitable size.
3. The shelf is fastened with screws to the end of the sawed backrest, having well attached all the slats of the backrest to the shelf.
4. The whole part is well sanded with sandpaper, removing roughness and traces of old paint.
5. Then paint in the desired color and, after drying, varnish.
6. When everything dries, you can screw the hooks and fasten them to the wall.

Shelf from a building tray

Is it possible to make a shelf without a jigsaw and a drill? Yes, it is! To do this, you can use an unnecessary building pallet, slightly - slightly transforming it.

On private ads sites such a pallet can be bought for 100 - 200 rubles, and if you're lucky, even for nothing. New pallets can be purchased online for 50 - 100 rubles more expensive. They will be cleaner and take less time to process.

To make a shelf from a pallet you need to prepare:

• wooden pallet;
• Ushm or Renovator, they can be replaced by an ordinary wooden bar, wrapped with sandpaper;
• sheets of sandpaper of different density;
• Brush and rags for cleaning;
• wood primer with protection against moisture;
• paint, varnish, brush.

Making:

1. The first thing to do is to sand the pallet with sandpaper, removing burrs, irregularities and dirt. To do this, first grind with coarse sandpaper, then medium sandpaper and the finest.
2. Finished with sanding, the surface is cleaned from dust with a brush and a damp rag and proceed to the application of moisture-proof composition. It will protect the future shelf from water dripping from shoes, preventing the formation of fungus and destruction of wood, and prepare the surface for the application of paint.
3. After the primer dries completely, the surface is painted and varnished. Depending on the chosen design, you can paint not the entire tray, but only the outside, leaving the inside of the natural color of the wood or combine in combinations that are convenient for you.

The top of the shelf can be turned into a mini greenhouse, decorating with house flowers, both natural and artificial.

If you want, from a construction tray you can build a shelf for any purpose and needs, for kitchen utensils, for books in the study, even in the workshop for tools. You just need to connect your imagination and change the face of a familiar thing a little bit!

This article lists only a small part of the options for making shelves on your own, at home. The possibilities for creativity are limited only by your imagination. Try it, you are sure to succeed.

Photo ideas of homemade shelves