July 2 & 3: Building Shelves for the Pantry

Shelves in the pantry score 92.9% on the project list. And how! We've got boxes sitting on the floor in the great room just waiting for the pantry shelves to be built. Chris agreed to help me. I had a plan, he brought the tools I didn't have, and the truck to transport the stuff I needed to buy,and we began.

Actually, I began about four days before when I started painting the pantry. I chose Electric Lime, because I like bright green and because the room has no window, so I wanted the walls to be bright. I painted the walls in preparation for our shelf building. Painting the pantry is only a 77.4% on the project list, but it made more sense to do it before painting the pantry shelves. Due to the lengthy nature of painting, and my other stuff going on, I put the second coat of the pantry shelf wall on the night before Chris came over to help me with the shelves. This will become relevant in a few paragraphs.

Still life with tape ball

Months ago, I drew up the plans, got excited about my new shelves, my life got busy and I had to do a million other things. Luckily, I had a whole week off around the Forth of July and I planned to get those shelves done. I bought the shelf brackets and consulted at my favorite hardware store about what kind of screws I would need to go into my metal studs. They steered me toward SDS screws which will self-drill through the metal stud, and then stick. (Self Drilling Screws. So really SDS Screws is a double abbreviation--self drilling screws screws, like Automatic Teller Machine machine. That drives me crazy.) I also bought a circular saw and a clothesline, though the clothesline has nothing to do with this project.

Anyway, I came home, consulted my plans and found that I had mis-remembered what I had drawn and was short six shelf brackets. Always consult your plans before you go shopping. Even if you made them yourself. Especially if you made them yourself.

The day of, Chris came over and we went shopping. I had a gift certificate from my very nice co-workers for Home Depot, so to Home Depot we went. I bought two half-inch sections of plywood, some more shelf brackets, some more screws for said shelf brackets, some marking chalk for the plumb line I bought at a garage sale and two saw horses.

Chris and I loaded everything up, dropped it off at the house and, famished, went out to lunch. This was already taking longer than I planned.

Back at the ranch we began looking for the studs in the wall. I have this stud finder that I know works, because before I painted the wall, when I was drawing up the plans, I found all the studs in the wall. The paint neatly covered those findings and I didn't think to make them anyplace else. Today however, the stud finder was finding studs every 2 inches, or not at all. It was because the damn paint was still a bit tacky. So, after feeling frustrated for awhile, I suggested we just make our best guess and start drilling. We did and it took us awhile, but we found a stud. Then, for some reason, the screws wouldn't go into the stud. After a bit of trying this and that (more holes) we determined that the screws weren't long enough and were just barely hitting the studs, not really gripping them as needed. Chris was dispatched to Lowes (closer to us) to get some longer screws. I stayed and looked for other studs.

Chris came back, and we were back in the game. Or, I guess, in the game. We got our first bracket in the wall!

We did about six brackets then I had to go to a reception and so Chris agreed to come back the next day. So much for my one day project.

The next day we finished off the brackets--it was easy once we had a system--and felt very successful. Although, of the 15 brackets we put up, only two grabbed the studs with all three screws. Mostly what happened was that the lower one would hold tight, one upper one would hold tight and the other upper one would glance off the edge of the stud. We figured it was because the studs were too skinny for the shelf brackets. Still, everything seemed sturdy enough.

This picture shows only two brackets per shelf. We eventually went with three, because when we put the first board down, it was too wobbly with just two.

Onward to the shelves. Here is the plywood on top of the new saw horses with the plumb line marking off the one-foot end I wouldn't need.

Here I am using my circular saw to cut the rest of the board into four shelves. Chris said I was very good at cutting in a straight line--better than him. All those years of sewing transferred over to another realm.


Then we had the aesthetic debate. Chris wanted to round the corners of the shelves while I wanted to cut them off at an angle so we wouldn't run into them on the way from the bedroom to the pantry. You might laugh, but I'm a bit klutzy.

We used our short non-shelf board as a test board, cutting one end on an angle and rounding the corners of the other end. We then set it on the brackets, testing each way. I still liked the angle and he still liked it rounded. We tried rounded and angled and found a winner. For a template, we used an old ice cream bucket.



Clamping the board down for jigsawing.

Chris hard at work jigsawing.

After that, there was much sanding and voila! We set the shelves in place.

This project isn't done, yet, though, because the shelves have to be painted. It's July 21st today, and I'm still working on that. I'll have an updated picture when things are done done.