How to make open shelving for your kitchen

More shelves??  Yes, more shelves.  But, there’s a reason!  Mainly because a good friend of ours was removing some old cabinets in her kitchen and wanted some open shelving to replace them. I’ve made lots of shelves before in videos, but once again, these use a different technique and look totally different than the previous ones.

One of the interesting things about these is that they’re made from stair treads! These are pine (or oak, if you want to double the price) but they’re 1″ thick, which gives the shelves a little bit beefier look that if you were to use typical 3/4″ pine boards.

These are simple, and you really could make them with a table saw, jigsaw, drill and sander.

Have a look!

To get a thickness of 1″, I used pine stair treads, but trimmed off the rounded edge.

I cut them to length, using the off cuts for the brackets.

I drew out a 9″ square and a notch for the ledger.

From the opposite corner, I used a compass to draw an arch.

I cut the brace out on the bandsaw, but a jigsaw would work as well.

I cut out the area for the ledger, 3/4″ x 2″.

I used the first brace as a template to trace the others.

Then I made a LOT more of them.

I used the edge of the belt sander to smooth out my bandsaw cuts.

Also, I flattened out the ends of the brace.

For the corner shelves, I lined up two panels and made three marks across the joint.

Using a biscuit joiner, I cut a biscuit slot on both pieces, at each one of the marks.

Both surfaces and all six slots got plenty of glue, and one panel got three biscuits.

I clamped the panels together from top and bottom to stock flexing and bowing.

After the joints were dry, I sanded the glue squeeze out and all edges.

I set the brackets in place, on the TOP side of the shelves, squared them to the edge and traced them.

This area is so I know the safe area to drill holes down from the top.

I drilled two holes for each brace.

The holes were countersunk to allow the screw heads to be flush to the top.

I added glue to each brace and held it perpendicular to the shelf.

I connected the braces with screws, from the top side.

The corner shelves worked the same way, but took a lot longer.

All of the holes, and voids were filled with wood filler.

Then all of the filler was sanded away and the shelves sanded smooth.

 

I cut some scrap 3/4″ pine into strips, to act as the ledgers.

The strips were all chopped to length on the miter saw.

Everything was primed and painted with white enamel paint.

I marked in 1″ (the thickness of the braces) from each end of the ledgers.

I predrilled a hole in each one. This hole will be covered by the brace.

Every brace has a hole behind it, and the straight shelves have a center hole as well.

I held the ledgers in place, leveled them and drilled through the holes to transfer the locations to the wall.

I opened up each hole with a larger drill bit, to fit the anchors I’d purchased.

The anchors were knocked into the holes. Each of these anchors can support 75lb. Get the correct anchors for your application.

I drove screws, through the ledger, into the anchors, and it was really solid.

I did the same for the other two ledgers, making sure everything stayed level throughout.

The shelves fit tightly onto the ledgers. I used a rubber mallet to knock them into place.

I countersunk a hole, through the shelves, into their ledger, followed by a long screw.

I predrilled, countersunk and screwed the bottom edge of each brace to the wall for stability.

Finally, there was a LOT of hole filling, patching, and touch up painting to do.

Since the walls are wavy (old house) I filled gaps with caulking.

They turned out really well, and best of all, my friend really likes them!