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Building a Home

Closet Shelves

13 years ago

We are in the process of building a home. Our GC usually uses the wire type shelves for closets. Since we are building out in the country and it's a farm style house, I would prefer wood (or something similar) that we could paint. We are by no means handy, but we have access to someone that could do some work for a reasonable hourly rate. I just need to tell him exactly what we want - type of wood, and size of trim that will hold the shelf and rod. We also have several linen closets. I went to lowes and there are so many options! Could someone recommend a type of wood that would be affordable and appropriate for this and what type/size of trim we should use to hold the shelves? Thank you in advance!

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Comments (4)

stayn2busy
13 years ago
We are also building out in the country on a farm. Our trim guys built all our shelving for closets and the pantry. They used MDF board (I think that's what it's called) which was much cheaper than wood and also they said it will paint much smoother. Here's the pantry

Here's one side of the master closet. One thing (out of about a hundred) that I regret, is not having the shelves in my closet wider. My current closets have a 16" shelf and I never thought that "standard" was anything different, BUT it is. Standard is 12"... so be sure you know how wide you want your shelves when they order materials.
brickeyee
13 years ago
How big is the closet?

Simple shelves in a smaller closet can use 1x4 as ledger boards on the sides and back, and then plywood.

If the span gets much over about 36 inches you may need a strip of 1x2 on the front edge of the shelf to stiffen it.

The thin dimension attaches to eh bottom of the plywood with screws from above.

Shelf standards are another option, and interfere with a lower shelf space much less than the brackets above.
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Thanks for the advice. I am really intrigued by the Ikea storage systems that have been mentioned several times. We do have an Ikea 40 minutes from us, but I've never looked at closet systems. I'd love to have the builder install some kind of system, but money is getting tighter as we go, and I just decided I want wood floors. So I'm willing to put in the DIY time on whatever we can in order to save enough for the couple of splurges that we'd like to do. Anyone have pictures of their closets with the Ikea systems?
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You and me both! (and you and me both on the wasted headroom! In this case, it's not so bad bcs it makes it possible to lift stuff up and over, at least on a couple of shelves.) And I'm feeling bad I didn't take befores. i'm going to take befores of the last shelf to tackle. Maybe even tonight.
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Source for Closet Shelving
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Comments (1)
lowes sells a roth allen closet system that comes in different colors (don't know about maple tho) and has a 'ventilated' shelf like that one... i know they have rods too, but don't know if they're wood. might be easier to change your current rod if you want them to match...
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Material for Closet Shelves
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Comments (11)
I assumed that the OP's plan was to paint the units. In which case basic $30-$40 sheet plywood from HD and $1 a foot poplar 1x2 trim would be fine. I am a woodworking hobbyist and that's what I used in all the closets in my house. Pick through the stack at HD for clear and straight wood, sand, prime, paint. Looks good and will last forever. If it gets nicked up or looks dated you can repaint. If the plan is to stain and poly the wood ... that does significantly increase the cost of labor and materials. You would need higher quality materials and the carpenter would need to have more skill, spend more time and have better tools. Good luck.
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ourhome6
Original Author
13 years ago
stayn2busy - Thank you for your advice regarding 12" and 16", I had not even thought about sizes and probably would have gone with the "standard". Thanks for sharing your pictures. MDF might be a good option for us too.

Brickeye - The kid's closets are about 6' long, but we also have smaller linen closets. Is plywood cheaper than MDF? Does it look ok painted or does it look like paint over rough plywood? I would like smooth nice looking shelves...
davemartin88
13 years ago
We were at a log home show last weekend and saw a modular closet system made from cedar and we are thinking about ordering this product for our new house (to replace the wire shelves installed by the builder).
Seemed pretty flexible and reasonably priced. We're not affiliated with the company, just another alternative you might consider.

Here is a link that might be useful: Northern Kentucky Cedar

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