DIY Closet Shelving

Since our house was built in '69 it has had some pretty outdated parts to it:

Poop green bathroom- again, with towel bars inside the shower??

A kitchen where you can watch yourself do dishes (please notice the mirror above the sink)

Wood. Paneling.  I don't think I need to elaborate on this...

Well, people, the ugliness didn't stop at the obvious things, it also included our closets, ALL of them.  The bedroom closets were easy fixes with Rubbermaid closet systems purchased from Lowe's, and even the bathroom and coat closets were able to be remedied with these pieces.  However, we have this little powder room that has a closet built in over our basement stairs and it is 43 inches wide.  This was a problem because that meant it was too wide for one set of Rubbermaid shelves, but too thin for the 4 foot shelving without having to hack it down with a Dremel saw.  So, I based my shelving on the same concept of another blog that I follow, Sawdust and Embryos, in their Closet Shelving Tutorial.  It was a GENIOUS idea and so simple to do that even being preggers, I got 'er done!

I forgot to take a picture of the closet before I removed the old shelves- but picture this: slabs of wood that went from the very back to the very front of the cabinet.  There were 3 of them and I couldn't see to the back of the shelves because they came so far forward.  Plus, they had some nasty stains and stuff (shudder)- yuck!

I'm so thankful my Dad decided I needed a miter saw- it was my best friend on this project!  Here's all my 1x4's cut to size to fit the melamine shelving that we purchased- on sale, booyah!

After finding the studs and marking them all the way up the back wall of the closet I began installing the wood pieces that will act as my shelf brackets.  I just used drywall screws we already had on hand from our basement reno.  They worked like a charm.  P.S. Please notice the dark papery stuff on the bottom of the closet.  This closet doesn't go all the way to the floor since it's over the stairs, and the previous owners just put this ugly stone and glitter linoleum up the side and on the bottom of the closet.  Despite all my valiant efforts, I couldn't get it off- so instead I decided I would just cover it up with something else that you'll see later.

I made sure to drill the screws into the wood slightly so that I would be able to fill in over them with putty.

All the pieces in and puttied, waiting to be sanded the next day.

In the S&E Tutorial they also used melamine shelving and then glued and heat-adhered on pieces over the raw edges of the melamine.  I decided to just skip a step and get melamine that had a finished front edge- I didn't care about the other edges since they would be facing the walls. 

I marked the length of my shelves and then covered the marks with painter's tape and remarked- I was worried the table saw would chip the shelving.  I don't know if it actually made a difference, but it sure didn't chip! 

 

Remember I said I was covering up that paper crap on the bottom?  I did it with 1/4 inch birch plywood, brad-nailed it down and filled in all the brad nail holes- I kind of nailed the bajeebers out of it!  Wood putty was my next best friend on this DIY.

Finally I added a piece of corner trim over the seam and installed white baseboards on the inside.  The closet walls and wood brackets received a coat of a light gray paint and the baseboards and new "floor" of the closet got a shiny coat of white with a few coats of water-base polyurethane to help keep the surface durable since I'm storing occasional use cooking items on it: roaster, bread maker, etc. 

I can see everything on my new shelves!

And everything looks organized and fabuloso!