Easy Building Country Shelves

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MOTHER'S WOODSHOP

A place for everything...

On any self-sustaining country- place, we accumulate great heaps of stuff that we don't need every day, but that we wait in clear view and close at hand when we do: books; hand and power tools; the sausage-stuffer and canning equipment; seasonal ornaments and kid's toys; engine oil and dry-food stores; leftover wall-paper and paints; nails, screws, and adhesives; and more tools. If such items are stashed away in drawers or boxes, the back or bottom layers will inevitably be forgotten and lost. How many half-used containers of putty, paint, and fluid adhesive have you misplaced, forgotten, and discovered years later, dried up and ruined?

I find that the best way to keep track of stuff is to store it out of the way but in full view and in easy-to-reach spots on the otherwise unused overheads and unfinished walls of the house and barn. Fixed storage shelves can be easily erected on stout wooden brackets fastened to open wall studs, using a few simple tools. elementary fasteners, and straight cuts in stock lumber and sheet goods.

Open Stud Walls

A majority of the walls in most spread-out country places are finished on the outside, but on the inside, the 2 x 4 or larger vertical posts or studs are exposed on three sides. Most of this wall area is ignored and wasted. Insulating, sheathing, trimming, and hidden-wiring such spaces is a major undertaking that's justified only if you need an additional interior room: an added bedroom, playroom, or office. But with minimal effort and expense, the space can be utilized as is: the open studs can be converted to storage walls, rendering the unfinished area a useful, informal, temperate-weather living or working space—a storage pantry, shop, rough-finished dorm, indoor-outdoor room, or summer kitchen. Here is how to build shelves that will put all of that wasted space to good use.

First, plan and lay out the shelves. Pick your most open, accessible wall. The back wall of a garage is better time side walls that can be crowded when a vehicle is parked inside. Move the stuff that's already stacked up, nailed onto, or leaned against the wall. Get it far enough away so that you have working space to set up a pair of sawhorse or better, two pairs with a 4' x 8' sheet of "-thick plywood on top for a worktable. Mount lengths of sacrificial 2 x 4 atop the horses, so you call make shallow cuts into them while sawing shelving and supports without worry.

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