New Kitchen Shelves (as Part of an Island)

Deborah Perrin
by Deborah Perrin
3 Materials
$30
2 Hours
Easy
Our kitchen has an island - not movable unless we want to re-configure the placement of the sink & dishwasher. On the opposite side of the sink & dishwasher is an overhang - we installed 1 small shelf unit, then had 2 barstools. The barstools were being used to hold coats & miscellaneous items for 4 years. I think they were sat on twice. Time to add more shelves!
This took me 2 hours to do & cost about $30. If only all my house projects were like that!
Here's the "before" shot - after we gave the barstools to our son.
To match up with the other shelves, I hit up the "scratch & ding" shelf area at Menards & scored 2 pieces of 4 foot & 5 pieces of 3 foot white shelf board at $2.49 each! I picked up enough L brackets to set all boards in place - along with a box of screws at True Value.
I measured for the 2 larger side pieces & cut to size. I'll be attaching them to the floor & the upper counter. On the first board, I pre-attached the L-brackets for the lower part, then realized that I needed to mark where the upper one that attached to the countertop went.
Lower part on the floor...
Upper part attached to the countertop.
Both sides in place.
The side on the right didn't have a place to use an L-bracket - if you look at the last picture, you will see a brace board coming down, so I set 2 screws through the board into that.
Next, I measured & cut all shelves - looks like this one is correct! There are 2 shelves going on the left side & 4 on the right.
For the shelf on the right, they are attaching to the existing shelves I made 4 years ago. As this will have the same number of shelves, I'm just matching them up - in the "close enough" category... icon
Yep - looks good!
In case you were wondering how I held them in the right place - this particular shelf is 4 tuna cans & 1 tomato paste can above the shelf under it.
Once again utilizing the tuna can method, I held up the first shelf on the left side. The tub is our dog food container - this will actually be the home for it. These shelves will be holding most of the pet supplies - which is something we currently have in several places.
Here is the final look - for now! As many will notice, the shelves extend beyond the counter top. Totally aware of that - and completely on purpose. I will be changing out the counter top in a future kitchen remodel - probably in a couple months - so I figured I can live with it that long!
Suggested materials:
  • White shelving boards   (Menards)
  • L brackets   (True Value)
  • Screws   (True Value)
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