Upcycled Shelf From a Cabinet Door

11 Materials
$30
1 Week
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Learn how to turn an old cabinet door into a functional shelf that is perfect for any craft room or office!

Last year we bought a set of cabinet doors at our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We used one right away to create a fun serving tray, and then the other one sat around in our garage, moved with us to Kentucky, and then sat around in our garage again UNTIL recently when I was so incredibly fortunate to partner up with Plaid so needed a shelf to store all my new paints!

PREP - Lightly scuff sand all surfaces of the cabinet door with 220 grit sandpaper, it helps the paint adhere later. Once sanded, clean the cabinet door of dust with a lint-free rag and some denatured alcohol. Use your saw to cut the 1"x2" into the shelf boards.


I measured mine to overhang the cabinet door by one inch on each side. My cabinet door was 18 inches wide so each shelf board was cut to 20" long. After all the shelves are cut, lightly sand them too.

LAYOUT - Lay out your shelf boards across the door ensuring that they are square and evenly spaced. We were building this shelf for a specific purpose (to hold paint bottles) so we spaced our shelves to fit. Each bottle was 4" tall so we made the space between each shelf 4 1/4".


Once you have your spacing and number of shelves worked out, lay them out square across the door and mark where each shelf goes. To add some strength, we notched the cabinet door for our shelves using a router, but if you aren't going to put anything too heavy on them it is not necessary. Just use a slightly longer screw.

ATTACH - Attach the shelf boards to the door using glue and screws. Clamp each shelf in place, ensuring it is aligned with the marks you made earlier, drill a pilot hole, then drive the screw. Once you are happy with the overall look, temporarily detach the shelves, spread some glue and reattach them.

PAINT - Get out your spray paint and go crazy! Just remember if you don't prime the bare wood it may take a good bit of paint to get the finish you want - we used almost an entire can of the semi-gloss white paint. If you used semi-gloss or gloss paint let it dry for a few days to ensure you prevent items from tacking to the paint.

HANG - Mount your new shelf system to the wall and enjoy.


Who would have thought that an old cabinet door could be turned into such a cute shelf!


Now, like I mentioned before, we used our new shelf to store bottles of craft paint. However, you could use your shelf to display home decor items, store office supplies or possibly store spices in your kitchen! The possibilities are endless!


To get more project inspiration for your home and to learn more about the products used in this project, stop by my blog!

Resources for this project:
Two (2) 1"x2"x6ft Boards
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Beth Kingston
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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