How to Hang a Shelf, Part 4: Cheaper Alternatives

This office would be kind of expensive to do on your own.

Nothing to break the bank, mind you, but the materials I used were pricey, and it took a lot of labor and woodworking expertise to make the walnut shelves. In this post, I'm going to show you a few ways to save money on your shelving.

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First, if you were paying attention, you might have noticed that I made do without brackets in a few places:

On the right-hand side, I didn't have to use brackets because the wall made a right angle, and there were studs in all the right places. I just screwed little strips of wood (ledgers) into the wall to make ledges.

On the lower left, I was concerned that the printer/scanner would bump into the shelf bracket when I raised the lid. I wanted to use a ledger, but there's not a stud in the right place. Instead of screwing the ledger to the wall, I held it up in front with a little piece of wood. (This is a bit of trim that I happened to have lying around, and it's probably a little too slender for the books it's holding up. If you're trying this at home, use something a little thicker.)

I could have supported whole shelf this way, with sturdy legs running down from one shelf to the next and thence to the desk. That would take a little more work than hanging brackets, but it would be a little bit cheaper.

In fact, when I put in my kitchen, I made a sturdier version, using legs as wide as each shelf, like this:

The kitchen was also less expensive than the office because I used a cheap grade of pine, and I got the two metal brackets for free from my mom when she upgraded her kitchen. By the way, did you notice that the brackets are just a little bit off center? Once again, it's because of the location of the wall studs.

Speaking of "less expensive," the wood for this little bathroom shelf was free:

I used reclaimed barn wood which matched the tile perfectly. Using old barn wood for shelving can be questionable, because it's sometimes a little bit dry-rotted or termite-eaten. But this is a thick board on a short span of shelf, and it won't be holding a lot of stuff, so I could get away with a weaker material. And once again, you will note the wacky placement of the wall studs. I even had to cantilever the shelf at one end, which would NOT be appropriate for a bookshelf. Since I was cantilevering, I made sure to screw the shelf onto the bracket from beneath.

But none of this weird spacing mattered once we put stuff on it.

Well, that's the end of the shelf series. Isn't amazing how much I can talk about a little ol' shelf?

Do you need someone to install a built-in office or a custom closet? Give me a call if you live near Asheville.