Furlough Project #2 – Closet Shelves

I am a Federal employee & have been on furlough since 12/22/2018.  I spent the first 5 days of my furlough in Florida with my family for Christmas.  Since then I’ve been keeping busy with projects and deep cleaning.  For my 2nd furlough project I built additional shelving for our front hall closet.  This is something I’ve been meaning to do since 2015!  Our one shelf has been a disorganized mess for the past 3 years.  When I cleaned it out I found stuff I didn’t even know we had, and also stuff we’ve been looking for:

our closet shelf in the front hall has been a jumbled mess

My plan was to build 2 side-shelves to sit on top of the main shelf & take advantage of the high ceiling in the closet.  The clearance between the main closet shelf and door frame is only 10″, so I wasn’t able to get up in there and nail/screw braces to the wall.  That meant dusting off the Kreg Jig and making shelves with legs [aka little tables].  Before building them I checked the internet but all the cheap cubbie-type storage I found was at least 2″ too wide.  I already had a surplus of ¾” plywood in my wood pile, so I used my table saw to cut 6 pieces:

i used my kreg jig to build new closet shelving for the front hall        i cut 6 pieces of 3/4" plywood to make new closet shelves

The Kreg jig made easy work of them and soon I had 2 little tables:

i used my kreg jig to build new closet shelving for the front hall        i used my kreg jig to build new closet shelving for the front hall

I primed & painted them:

i primed & painted our new closet shelving for the front hall        the completed shelves i made for our front hall closet

Then easily slid them into the closet [see? not much clearance]:

the new shelves were made narrow enough to slide into the closet

So cool!  Exactly what I had in mind:

the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet        the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet

Here’s a wider shot of the 2 shelves, and an after shot once I’d stored everything back up there.  I had so much extra room that I was able to store a whole bunch of new stuff that has been laying around the house.  Score!:

the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet        the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet

The shelves were a very easy project and I’m so glad they’re finally done!

the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet        the new shelves are perfect and add space to our front hall closet

Stay tuned for furlough projects 3 & 4!

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4 thoughts on “Furlough Project #2 – Closet Shelves”

    • Yes, they make it so much easier to store stuff in there – it’s such an awkward space to access – it’s nice to have the stuff we don’t use very often up high and really out of reach – leaves the other stuff easier to grab.

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