Easy DIY Industrial Bookshelf
This DIY industrial bookshelf is not only super easy but inexpensive, too.
Every June my little town has a community wide garage sale. It happened to be last weekend and we had no plans. That, like never happens. I took the kids and we made a thing out of it. You know your kids have been bitten with the DIY bug when your 7 year old son says to you “Mom, come look at this board. I think I can make a table out of it.” Or when my daughter said “Mom, I think that metal basket would make a good light fixture. ” No joke. Yeah, their mine and I could not be more proud 🙂
Aaaany way, on our adventure we found some really cool stuff. In particular this $5 metal shelf. It was dusty and rusty but was callin’ my name. I recently upcycled a metal cart into an end table and knew this would be a great match.
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So sad, right? If you look past all the rust and grime and cobwebs, you’ll see some great bones. Once it was all cleaned up, scrubbed down and rinsed off, here’s what you have…
Not sure you can tell but it’s actually upside down here. The reason we did this is so that we can set the boards to make the shelves right inside the current shelves. From here we gave it a couple of coats of flat black spray paint. I didn’t paint inside where the shelves are going to go because you won’t see it anyway…
For the shelves we used the same rough saw pine that we used for the metal cart end table. We are fortunate to have a saw mill just a few miles away. We got a 12 x 12 board and cut it down and it only cost us $8.00. If you don’t have a mill near you, you can get pine boards from a local home improvement store but keep in mind that they would probably sit down just a bit from the lip of the shelf as the cut boards we get are a true 1″. You could always add a 1/4 inch plywood on first to bring the boards up to the height of the metal shelf.
I like the roughness of the wood which I think adds character but we (hubby) sanded them down just a bit with the palm sander…
We also used the same stain, as before, Rust-Oleum Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil finish. The color is so rich and pretty.
This metal shelf makeover is complete. Here it is all put together…
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Since we already had the stain, the whole thing cost us $17 ($5 for the shelf, $8 for the wood and $4 for the spray paint). If you’d like to make one but may not have an old shelf, you can pick up one of these shelving units for about $26 here.
But if you’d like to give it a try…PIN IT…
Like furniture makeovers?? You can find more HERE.
I love the way it turned out! As far as DIY industrial shelves go, it doesn’t get much easier. Of course, now it’s making me want to completely re-do our entire family room. Not happenin’ any time soon.
Happy DIY’ing!
Col
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Upcycle projects are my favorite. This DIY industrial shelf tutorial was one of for sure! Be sure to check out all of the other creative upcycle projects my fellow bloggers have come up with! You can also see some of my other projects and DIY ideas here.
This turned out so cool! I always had a feeling that those old industrial shelves could look amazing with a bit of love.
Thanks, Emy! I was so excited when we found it for $5!
Colleen,
I LOVE this idea and recently purchased a shelf to complete the same DIY project. Our metal shelf has screws that go through so the wood will not fully go down into the area when flipped over- it looks like your shelves may have been similar- how did you handle this? I am thinking we will just get wood screws and screw them into the wood after we lay the wood down into the shelf. Is this what you did? Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing an easier idea!
Thanks!
Hi Kim! Thank you! My husband cut a small area out the bottom of the piece of wood in each corner to allow room for the screw so that the shelf would sit flush to the metal. We didn’t actually screw the wood planks down, they just sit tightly in the space.
How in the world did you get all that rust off the shelves?!
Hi Stephen! I actually didn’t get rid of it all. We scrubbed the shelves with dish detergent and a scrub brush and then gave them a really good coat of spray paint. We flipped them upside down to house the wood shelves so the rusty part is on the bottom. It’s almost gone, you can just see the texture of it a little through the paint. 🙂
Love the look using these metal shelves. Wanted to know what you put on the wood besides the stain…looks like there is a hint of white or something??? Would you let me know what else was used on the wood. Thanks!
Thank you, Carrie! We used a Danish Oil finish by a brand called Watco. The color is dark walnut and we only put on one coat. It came out light because we started with rough pine lightly sanded so tiny bits of the wood show through. I’ve used that product on a couple of projects and love it! A little goes a long way.
So in love with this project. Makes me want to flip around my metal rack in the kitchen 🙂
Thank you, Erlene!
Gorgeous update! Love that you saw past the initial condition it was in & gave it new life. How cool that your kids enjoy it at such a young age. That’s awesome.
Thanks, Michelle! It’s amazing what spray paint can do, right? It’s so fun to take the kids and see what they come up with 🙂
Very nice. I have some just like that in my garage. I may need to clean them up, give them a makeover and bring them in the house.
Thank you!
I love this, Colleen! And you’re right- I would totally have passed it by as too far gone. Have you ever done a post on spray painting tips? I’ve used it a bunch of times with varying success but I know you’re into it, and your projects always look great!
Hi Meredith! Thank you! I have not done a post on that but it’s a great idea. I’ll see if I can put something together. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks 🙂
Wow! I never would have thought to give a shelf like yours an industrial makeover but it works. I know that you are as pleased as can be with the end result of this project. It looks great!
Thanks, Paula! I’m really happy with the way it turned out but now it’s making me want to re-do the entire room! One project at a time, though 🙂
Hi Colleen, your shelf looks amazing now!! The funny thing is that we just moved and we had on the basement a very similar shelf which I was tempted to sell as it didn’t fit in the new house, but thankfully I didn’t because I’ve fallen in love with yours! Pinning to remember!
Thanks, Pili! It’s actually a really easy project too. Enjoy your new home!
Wow!! I am impressed. I love the look of industrial shelving. I have to admit I would not have given this one a second glance in it’s original state! Will be showing this to the Mr.!
Thanks, Maureen!
I love the finished product! What a score for that solid metal shelf.
Thanks Amanda! My daughter and I saw a woman at the garage sale with 3 other shelves like it and asked where she got them. She told us where and that there was only 1 left so we ran to get it. I think people thought we were crazy. It’s the thrill of the hunt, right? 🙂