Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul: Phase 4- Choosing Shelving

So I know it's been 4 months forever since I last posted....I know, I know....bad bad blogger....but life is real ya know. Sometimes things just get in the way or are more important, and thats life. BUT I have been working on finished the closet still as I have had time.

Anyhow, what I decided on using for shelving was real wood...pine to be exact. The reason I decided on real wood is because:

A- It was cheaper per foot than the already painted MDF and/or plasticy premade shelving boards.

B- It will last practically forever and take a beating.

C- Real wood is nice. If I am gonna do this, I am gonna do this, ya know!?

So, from Lowes or maybe Home Depot...I can't remember, I purchased three 8 feet long 1x12s for the shelves and four 8 feet long 1x2s for the cleats.

Here are the steps I took to get them ready to install:
#1- I sanded the mess out of them with my palm sander. (no picture of this messy task....I hate sanding.)

#2- I primed each side of the board with Kilz. I primed  BEFORE I cut the boards to size on purpose.... so that I could easily use a roller on the whole thing. This is like the ultimate exhibition of of laziness...lol...but either way it worked great. I laid the 1x2s side by side and did them using the roller all at once too. See below...

I even turned the big 1x12s up on theirs sides and rolled the edges...see below.

#4- I painted them using the same paint as the rest of the trim in the house. I also used the same methodology of rolling the whole boards rather than the cut shelves.

#5- Cut the boards to size. Again, I didn't take pictures of this but I cut them on my miter saw according to the lengths listed in my plan. I cut the 1x12s to use as shelves and I cut the 1x2s to use as cleats for the shelves.

#6- The next thing I did was predrilled the holes for the screws I was using in the pleats. It might be overkill, but since I wasn't hitting studs with most of my screws/nails I put anchors in the wall. So after I predrilled my holes in the cleats, I held the up to the wall where I wanted to put it and marked the wall. Then I put anchors in the wall on the marks I had made. Then all I had to do was put the screw through the predrilled holes in the cleats and in the anchors waiting in the wall. So these shelves are STURDY. I guess my thought was that one day a kid might be trying to climb them, so I wanted them as sturdy as possible. I put 2 screws in each side cleat and 3 screws in the back cleats.

#7- Next we laid the shelves we cut right onto the cleats. Then using a nail gun and 2 inch finishing nails, we nailed the shelves into the cleats.

And here's a pictures of the shelves before caulking and painting and before we nailed the top shelf to the cleats. You can see all the screw holes.

And here's one last picture of the other side of the closet before the finishing steps:

Yes that is a chair in the closet....I used it as my ladder that day.

To see previous Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul posts click the links:

Phase 1-the plan
Phase 2- the lights
Phase 3- the poles

Note: I was not given anything in this post. I purchased everything myself and was not compensated to post my opinions about it. I simply listed my supplies purchased with my own monies for the benefit of you, my wonderful reader friends.

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