Kitchen Organization – DIY Cube Shelves

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DIY Cube ShelvesAs a Lowe’s Creative Ideas blogger, one of the challenge themes for this month was kitchen organization and it was great timing for us! We just recently finally created a true little command center area, which really helped with organization. But, that little counter spot in our kitchen was still sort of a dumping ground. And, frankly the whole area was just ugly. Our newer home phone (yes, we still have one) won’t mount on the wall, so the ugly phone jack shows. There were all kinds of loose cords everywhere and quite a bit of valuable kitchen counter space taken up. So, we set out to to make things more functional & look nicer by moving everything up on the wall. But, we couldn’t find anything we liked that fit our small space. So, we built our own cube shelves! Such a BIG difference! Kitchen Organization Makeover - DIY Cube ShelvesI love the end result!!!! The change looks even better in person than in these photos! No more ugly phone jack showing, mostly hidden cords, more storage space and decorating space! SOOOO much better!! And, really the process wasn’t hard at all – it just took a little math and prep work. But, once everything was measured, cut, and drilled, it went together very quickly! If you’re building this for your space, your materials and measurements might differ for your custom space! We wanted cubes and decided on a 2 foot by 1 foot shelf unit, so that’s what our plans and materials are for. Adjust as needed.

DIY Cube Shelf Supplies:

  • 3/16″ x 2″ tension pins (3 total)
  • #8 x 1.5″ flat head wood screws
  • 21/32″ x 5.5″ x 8′ primed MDF
  • 1/4″ x 2′ x 2′ wood panel (we used oak)
  • 4D x 1.5″ box nails
  • black spray paint
  • drill

Cube Shelf Plans

How-to:

To make things nice and easy, we made sure all of our measurements were just right before heading into Lowe’s. So, we had Lowe’s cut all the wood – no power tools needed at home! The longest pieces (the top and bottom piece) are 2′ long and the side pieces are just under 1′ (needed to account for the width of the top and bottom). The back panel is just under 2′ wide and 1′ tall. They even cut all the small wood pieces to 5  1/16″!! So nice! Once home, we measured all the cut wood pieces very precisely to determine placement for the screws & tension pis to pre-drill all the holes (use a slightly larger drill bit on the outside sides of the shelf so that the screw heads will end up flush with the wood).  Building DIY Cube ShelvesWe used an already primed wood to make painting easier. So, we opted to just spray paint the wood pieces after the holes were pre-drilled. And, since all of our appliances are black, we decide to go with black for our shelving unit. Now, this paint job does NOT look as nice as hand painting would with a nice paint. But, we just opted to not spend the time painting that way & this works for us! Once the paint is dry, then you can start assembling! Custom Cube ShelvesTo assemble, place wood screws as indicated by the arrows in the figure above (2 per location). Place the pegs in the small wood pieces as shown in the above photo. Use nails (~1.5in long) to attach the back to the shelves (we cut a section out for the phone jack). At this point you have a completed shelving unit that just needs to be attached to the wall.

For wall-attachment, we used 2in long wood screws (with a washer behind the head to increase the overall “head” size to hold more securely). Note that you would need drywall anchors if not attaching to studs! DIY Kitchen Cube ShelfOnce installed, then you can decide what goes there! I LOVE having a spot where I can display some fun things (like our funky mugs) and still have functionality! It also freed up counter space so I finally have the space for a weekly menu board and a better spot for our essential oil diffuser! It’s made a world of difference in the kitchen! Kitchen Organization Project

For more kitchen ideas, you could check out our pantry organization and our kitchen door command center.

What kitchen organizational project do YOU want to tackle?

And, for even more DIY ideas, visit Lowes Cre­ative Ideas and fol­low along with Lowe’s on Pin­ter­est or on Insta­gram! You can sign up to receive their free Cre­ative Ideas Mag­azine, which is full of all kinds of ideas & inspi­ra­tion! There’s also a mag­a­zine app so you can have inspi­ra­tion on the go! And, this spring you can get weekly projects, tips & special values with the new “Improve with Lowe’s” app. Fall14-Blogger-Subscribe-Banner-392x240

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welcome!

I’m Sara, a mom to three adorable boys living in the Arizona desert. As a former teacher, I love sharing my passions with others. So, have a look around for creative inspiration about cooking, creating, celebrating, traveling with kids, and more everyday mom endeavors!

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