Today, I am going to show you how to build industrial shelves.
This was a new experience for me, so I just learned as I went along. But first let me show you the inspiration that got my wheels a turnin’ for this project….
When we were building the walls in their room, {a veeeerrrrry long time ago} we covered one wall on each side with faux brick paneling from Lowe’s.
To help the brick to not look like paneling, we filled the seams with wood filler.
Then we sanded it smooth…
And painted it the same color as the walls, Benjamin Moore, White Dove.
I printed off some of the inspiration pictures I found on my computer, and then began sketching each of the boy’s walls.
Jonathan wanted a place to hang his guitars, so I sketched his wall to look like this…
Then I went to Lowe’s to purchase my supplies. I chose to use 3/4 inch black iron pipes. They come in 1/2 inch and 1 inch sizes as well, and you can also purchase galvanized pipes instead of black, if you want.
These are the main four pieces I used:
They only had galvanized floor flanges, so I had to spray paint mine black.
I began laying the pipes out on the floor to make sure I had all the pieces I needed. Lowe’s didn’t have enough of some of the pieces, but they ordered them for me and arrived within a day or two!
I bought 2 inch thick pieces of wood for my shelves because I love the look of the thick shelves. They come in different lengths. You could save some money by purchasing a thinner wood, if you wanted.
I sanded each piece of wood before using it.
To begin building the wall, I put the bottom row of pipes together and then lined them up where I wanted them on the floor. I used some tape to help me keep them straight and a tape measure to make sure they were the same distance apart.
Then I screwed the flanges to the floor.
I used a 1 and 1/4 inch drill bit to drill holes in the wood where I needed them. Sometimes I used a tape measure to figure out where I needed to drill the holes, and sometimes I placed the wood on top of the pipes and used a marker to draw around the pipe so I could see where to drill the hole. Does that makes sense?
You can see in the picture below how we added the first shelf. You just continue doing the same thing for each shelf.
Pipe…T-ring….6 inch pipe…elbow…shelf….repeat.
Then we created the open space on Jonathan’s shelf by using 18 inch pipes. You can see how we still used the 6 inch pipes and the elbows underneath the shelf.
Since the final pipe on top needed to reach the wall, we used an 8 inch pipe instead of a 6 inch pipe. We attached a flange to that pipe and then screwed it into the wall. On Jonathan’s wall, it was the perfect length, and we were able to drill into the wall perfectly, but for Luke’s wall, we had to add an extra piece of wood to the back of the flange to make it fit perfectly to the wall. {Do not ask me why.}
)
After the shelves were built, I stained them with MinWax Provencial and sealed them with MinWax’s wipe on poly in Satin. Be sure to lightly sand in between each coat of poly. I applied two coats.
In the picture below, you can see the sizes of the pipes we used.
Lastly, I added some guitar clips and storage crates. We’ve put some “décor” on the shelves for now, but I am sure we will be changing a lot of it.
Jonathan is thrilled with his wall!! He said he wants to add some more “music” stuff to it, so that is our goal. I think it is a great use of space and makes his room look so “boyish.”
I was trying to figure out how much this wall cost, and I think it was around $300 total. Which is a lot cheaper than most pieces of furniture and makes a much greater impact in the room.
If you have any more questions about these shelves, just leave me a comment, and I will answer them.
Thanks!
If you love industrial shelving and want even more inspiration, Jen, from Tatertots and Jello, has a great post about them. Just click on the picture below.
“In accordance with the FTC Guidelines, I am disclosing that I received products from Lowe’s for this project. Although I have a material connection to Lowe’s, any publicly stated opinions of Lowe’s and their products remain my own.”
۞Peta Harta۞
This was a new experience for me, so I just learned as I went along. But first let me show you the inspiration that got my wheels a turnin’ for this project….
Boys Room Shelves @Jessica Kraus on A Beautiful Mess
I had considered doing pallet wood walls, but when I saw that picture
last year, I KNEW that I wanted to build something like it that in
Jonathan and Luke’s room. Their room is a long, narrow room, and each
side of the room is “their space.”When we were building the walls in their room, {a veeeerrrrry long time ago} we covered one wall on each side with faux brick paneling from Lowe’s.
To help the brick to not look like paneling, we filled the seams with wood filler.
Then we sanded it smooth…
And painted it the same color as the walls, Benjamin Moore, White Dove.
I printed off some of the inspiration pictures I found on my computer, and then began sketching each of the boy’s walls.
Jonathan wanted a place to hang his guitars, so I sketched his wall to look like this…
Then I went to Lowe’s to purchase my supplies. I chose to use 3/4 inch black iron pipes. They come in 1/2 inch and 1 inch sizes as well, and you can also purchase galvanized pipes instead of black, if you want.
These are the main four pieces I used:
They only had galvanized floor flanges, so I had to spray paint mine black.
I began laying the pipes out on the floor to make sure I had all the pieces I needed. Lowe’s didn’t have enough of some of the pieces, but they ordered them for me and arrived within a day or two!
I bought 2 inch thick pieces of wood for my shelves because I love the look of the thick shelves. They come in different lengths. You could save some money by purchasing a thinner wood, if you wanted.
I sanded each piece of wood before using it.
To begin building the wall, I put the bottom row of pipes together and then lined them up where I wanted them on the floor. I used some tape to help me keep them straight and a tape measure to make sure they were the same distance apart.
Then I screwed the flanges to the floor.
I used a 1 and 1/4 inch drill bit to drill holes in the wood where I needed them. Sometimes I used a tape measure to figure out where I needed to drill the holes, and sometimes I placed the wood on top of the pipes and used a marker to draw around the pipe so I could see where to drill the hole. Does that makes sense?
You can see in the picture below how we added the first shelf. You just continue doing the same thing for each shelf.
Pipe…T-ring….6 inch pipe…elbow…shelf….repeat.
Then we created the open space on Jonathan’s shelf by using 18 inch pipes. You can see how we still used the 6 inch pipes and the elbows underneath the shelf.
Since the final pipe on top needed to reach the wall, we used an 8 inch pipe instead of a 6 inch pipe. We attached a flange to that pipe and then screwed it into the wall. On Jonathan’s wall, it was the perfect length, and we were able to drill into the wall perfectly, but for Luke’s wall, we had to add an extra piece of wood to the back of the flange to make it fit perfectly to the wall. {Do not ask me why.}
)
After the shelves were built, I stained them with MinWax Provencial and sealed them with MinWax’s wipe on poly in Satin. Be sure to lightly sand in between each coat of poly. I applied two coats.
In the picture below, you can see the sizes of the pipes we used.
Lastly, I added some guitar clips and storage crates. We’ve put some “décor” on the shelves for now, but I am sure we will be changing a lot of it.
Jonathan is thrilled with his wall!! He said he wants to add some more “music” stuff to it, so that is our goal. I think it is a great use of space and makes his room look so “boyish.”
I was trying to figure out how much this wall cost, and I think it was around $300 total. Which is a lot cheaper than most pieces of furniture and makes a much greater impact in the room.
If you have any more questions about these shelves, just leave me a comment, and I will answer them.
Thanks!
If you love industrial shelving and want even more inspiration, Jen, from Tatertots and Jello, has a great post about them. Just click on the picture below.
“In accordance with the FTC Guidelines, I am disclosing that I received products from Lowe’s for this project. Although I have a material connection to Lowe’s, any publicly stated opinions of Lowe’s and their products remain my own.”
۞Peta Harta۞
