How to Make Pallet Storage Shelves with Side Rails

I have a DIY power tool battery station hanging on the wall on my workbench and little else. All of my tools, hardware, and empty tool cases are stored low to the ground – like me! –  in my DIY kitchen cabinet workbench where I can easily put everything away after I finish a project in my shop.

Short girl problems, yo.

But man, those empty molded plastic power tool cases are taking up some variable storage real estate in the workbench. I don’t want to keep shuffling them around the workbench to get to things I needs but I don’t want to get rid of them either. The cases are nice for those occasions I Handy Ma'am it at someone else’s house.

A dead space the wall over my workbench is the perfect place to store my power tool cases. I put my recycled pallet wood stash to good use and built a storage shelf with built in bookends (for lack of a better term) so my tool cases won’t fall off the end of the shelf.

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How to Build a Simple Shelf with Built in Bookends

 

I made this project from wood pallets in my stash so that is what largely determined the diminutions I used to make my shelf. Feel free to make your shelf as big or small as you need.


You will need:

Cordless nail gun and nails

Gorilla Wood Glue

Random Orbit Sander and sandpaper

4  Metal shelf brackets

Self drilling heavy duty wall anchors and a screwdriver 

Wood screws

Optional: Paint

3 - 41 inch long by 3 1/2 inch wide pallet wood boards – to make the bottom of the shelf

2 – 13 inch long by 2 3/4 inch wide wood pallet boards – for the bottom shelf supports

1 – 40 inch long by 5 1/4 inch wide pallet wood board – for the back shelf support

2 -  14 1/4 long by 5 1/4 inch wide pallet wood board - for the side rails of the shelf

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How to Make It:


1. Place the three 41 inch long by 3 1/2 inch wide pallet wood boards pallet wood boards size by side.  Run a bead of wood glue the length of each of the 13 inch long by 2 3/4 inch wide wood pallet boards glue them to the underside of the shelf bottom and nail gun the shelf supports into place.

 I left spaces in between my horizontal boards since I don't have to worry about the items I'm storing the shelf being small enough to slip through.

2. Run a bead of wood glue on the bottom front of the 40 inch long by 5 1/4 inch wide pallet wood board, butt the board up to the back of the shelf and nail gun the shelf back into place.

 Basically you are building three quarters of a box to build this storage shelf.

3. Run a bead of wood glue on the bottom front of each 14 1/4 long by 5 1/4 inch wide pallet wood boards, butt each board up to the sides of the shelf and nail gun the shelf side rails into place.

I made my side rails a little longer than the width of the shelf so I have the option to attach a dowel rod to the front of the shelf to keep the cases from taking a header if the wall moves when the door to the house slams shut.

4. Use the sandpaper and sander to sand all of the pallet boards and edges smooth. The grits you use and for how long is going to depend upon the condition of your pallet/scrap wood. Some of my boards were incredibly rough and I started working my way up from 80 grit, others were fairly smooth and I started at 120 grit and went up from there. That’s the breaks when you use mismatched scrap pallet wood to build something and you want everything to have the same look and feel.

5. Optional: Paint the shelves to pretty up your mismatched pallet wood.

I spray painted the shelf brackets black to unify all of the mismatched and recycled hardware in my garage

6. Use the screwdriver to install the self drilling drywall anchors into the wall unless you are lucky enough to be able to hang your shelf brackets by screwing them directly into a wall stud. ( I never am.)

I like to use a manual screwdriver when I install sell drilling wall anchors because a screw gun can strip them. Guess how I know?

7. Use small wood screws to attach the wood shelf to the wall brackets.

8. Store your empty power tool cases and hang ‘em high!

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