Built-in Kitchen Wall Shelves!

7 Materials

$75

3 Days

Medium

I spent my winter vacation building these shelves into the wall of my little kitchen. It's a fun project if you're looking to upgrade your kitchen and have a couple days to burn.

built in kitchen wall shelves, closet, diy, kitchen design, painting, shelving ideas, wall decor

Finished!

Now its time to fill this bad boy up!

My wife had an idea of what she wanted on each shelf, so I measured accordingly.

I stained some thin grainy plywood for the back of the shelves and then waxed the whole thing with teak.

I went with one coat of a black and brown mixture and then lightly sanded it for a distressed look.

I cut a "molding" type pattern in the wall and used the scrap wood from the wall to cut more pieces. The trim is cedar wood I bought for the shelving.

Found you guys! The opposite side of this wall is your everyday drywall. The side you see is plywood. I used a jigsaw, a mini craft saw and all my patience to cut along the studs.

This is my lovely non-load-bearing "interior" kitchen wall. I jigsawed out a peephole to check where in the world my studs are hiding. My stud finder was acting bonkers on me.
Be extra cautious of wires in the wall!

3 of 10 questions

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Linda L. Deeren
on Jan 6, 2018
My house was built in 1905 and has plaster and slats walls. Can I do this with my rooms?
4
Answer this
- Prelude
  on Jan 15, 2019
  Sure you can, but you need to keep in mind what may be behind those walls, ie., pipes and wiring. And I agree with Dan, about the wall's interior framing not being uniform. Plaster walls are such a rarity now. If it was my home and the walls were in good shape, I'd not touch them.
  4
Elizabeth
on Dec 5, 2018
How did you get the frame , especially the base in? Did you have to cut through the studs and place the base in the wall ?
1
Answer this
- Bryan's Workshop
  on Dec 5, 2018
  Hey Elizabeth! You do not need to cut into the studs. All of the shelves are sitting on wood cleats. Think of the entire open space between the studs as an empty cabinet. You'll screw cleats inside the space to the sides of the studs to sit shelves on. You can see the cleats under the shelves in some of my pictures.
  
  The base is just shelves on cleats with two pieces of trim running across the bottom. I have trim running horizontally across the front of every shelf and vertically down every stud. I hope this helps. :)
  9
Joanie
on Jan 15, 2019
Very pretty wall.....you do nice work......a little more dusting for your wife, but she ask for it....Why is all the spirits and pickled eggs on the top shelves???????
4
Answer this
- Joanie
  on Jan 21, 2019
  I just told the builder, the more shelves, the more clutter and more for the wife to dust.

2 of 469 comments

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DJ
on Jan 27, 2019
My Dad did this waaayy back when! He added a bar area in the dining room corner. Made the wall behind the bar like this to sit bottles of liqour on. Only thing he did different was hammer on the shelf wood randomly before staining to give the shelves a textured look. You brought back some sweet memories! Thanks for sharing.
Charlotte Koch
on Feb 2, 2019
Great job. I have just the spot that needs this project. Thanks.