DIY Closet Shelving

9 Materials
$60
6 Hours
Medium

Hi, it’s Brittany from Our Home Made Easy! I am passionate about sharing easy DIY projects around the house for other busy families.


Today I wanted to share how we took this builder grade bathroom closet and turned it into an organized closet with shelves that we can really use!


You can see the full tutorial on OurHomeMadeEasy here.

We built our home about 4 years ago. This linen closet is weirdly shaped in our master bathroom. It's 14 inches deep by more than 50 inches wide. The shelves extend behind the door frame over towards the left wall and then end by the shower tile.

The basic wire racks had supports that came down and pretty much left most of the surface area useless. We couldn't place anything wide in the closet because the supports would get in the way.


I struggled keeping anything standing upright since the wire was just far enough apart to make sure all my spray bottles fell over.


The current wire racks were about 12 inches deep and our towels hung awkwardly off the front of the lip. It wasn't a deal breaker, but just one of those things that would've been nice to fix up since we were already planning to organize.

We ended up building custom shelving for the closet for less than $60!


First, we removed all the existing wire racking and supports. Then we filled in the existing anchor holes.


Once they were filled, we sanded and painted the closet a bright white.

Next up it was time to find shelving that fit the entire space and would allow us to use the entire shelf, not have supports in the way. We didn't want to pay for custom shelving from a shelving store, so we decided to DIY this part.


My husband bought 15 inch deep by 8 foot wide MDF shelves. We found them at a local hardware store, Menard's. They cost about $11 apiece!


We picked up 5 shelves to replace the 5 levels we were already using.

Using both a table saw & circular saw, he cut them down to fit into the depth of the closet and the width needed.


To avoid the support issue we had before, we installed these slim brackets.

And here is the closet AFTER!


Now, the towels fit on shelves completely.


These galvanized metal storage bins look great but are super light. You can find them here using my affiliate link for the metal storage bins.


The wicker baskets on the bottom shelf hold the heavier items like body wash and large club-sized bottles. To keep them from scratching the new shelving, we are planning to add some clear plastic bumpers on the bottom of each basket.


These little white & green boxes hold all my nail polishes. My original thought was to find small baskets, but everything we found had a wicker or uneven bottom.

Thank you so much for checking out how we made this closet less builder grade and more custom!


Follow me on Facebook at 'Our Home Made Easy' so that you can see our latest projects! www.facebook.com/ourhomemadeeasy

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  • KKAbsherwrites KKAbsherwrites on Dec 15, 2018

    I plan on doing the same to our pantry. I have those same shelf brackets, but cannot find the correct size screw for them. Do you remember what you used? Thank you! This looks great!

  • Marcy Marcy on Dec 16, 2018

    Have you thought of putting felt on the bottom of the wicker baskets? It will allow you to slide them in and out easily where the little plastic bumpers will not.

  • Krista Krista on Jan 05, 2020

    Did you stain your MDF? All of the mdf shaving I see is an ugly tan color! If so, what kind of stain is best?

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  • Jan Jan on Dec 30, 2020

    It came out beautifully, I also have wire shelves and my answer to fix that problem came from our Dollar Tree store. They sell nice clear plastic throw away cutting boards. 2 in each pack. Hold all those items without falling through. I just thought I'd pass that along. Happy New Year everyone.

    • Corvina Corvina on Dec 30, 2020

      Now THAT is a GREAT idea!

      I've been using Ramen Noodle boxes (the kind that have 12 packages per), making them look nice and going that way.

      I think I will check the Dollar Store's web site now!

      Thank you! Happy New Year!

  • Carey Carey on Jan 01, 2021

    I have a pantry with exactly that kind of shelving! It is a true PAIN! It makes it so that at least 2" to 2 1/2" of shelf space that is unusable on every shelf, which adds up to a lot of space. I am very frustrated with being able to put tall bottles on wire shelves that are unstable to stand, 2" or more of unusable space and generally not very user friendly, just very installer friendly! I bought a little expandable roller cart to put in at the bottom and it too is wire, so was the same problem for keeping things right side up is they were not wide enough to cover a number of wires. It suddenly dawned on me that those boxes like Trash bags, etc some in can be flattened and provide the stability to at least keep bottles standing! It worked. I also thing that on the shelves where that it an issue, putting plastic place mats on the shelf will not take up extra space, but will provide some stability for those bottles that we want to keep upright! That woo works! : ) I do plan to replace those shelves with wood and adjustable sides so that I can use as I desire! With those wire shelves all as equal distances apart make not sense for being actually useable for a variety of either food or equipment! Also, something to be aware of, for some reason, in the winter when I am heating in cold temperatures outside, my pantry door has to be left open because it gets to warm and food spoilage would be the result. I keep the door open and that seems to dissipate the heat, but it is a frustrating state of affairs! So when putting in a pantry, be sure that a heat source is not to slice to the pantry, like a heat duct or a refrigerator which puts out quite a bit of heat though usually it is not noticeable.


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