Garage Shelves

I’ve been wanting to rebuild some shelves in my garage for a few months and finally dedicated some time to do so. The shelves I’m replacing were my first run at creating usable storage space for my garage. While these shelves were doing the job I intended them to do I was constantly reminded how amateurish they looked. I thought I’d share because these types of projects are not beyond the average homeowner and once you accomplish small feats like this you’ll find yourself wanting to tackle bigger projects.

I decided to use triangle supports for the shelves and joined them with pocket holes to have a clean look. I also sunk the lag screws used to anchor the supports to studs. Lastly, I used wood stain to add some flavor. Here’s a quick rundown of what I this project entailed:

- Measured and drew out where the wall studs were located to give me an idea of where I’d be attaching the shelves.
- Once the dimensions were worked out, I cut all the wood needed to assemble the shelves.
- To make the triangle supports one needs to know only the most basic concept of trigonometry, namely that the sum of the angles will equal 180°. Since a right angle is 90° the other two will vary depending on how long and deep you want the hypotenuse to extend. I kept it simple and went with 45° cuts.
- Used a Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes into the top piece of the angle to attach it to the wall support. I also drilled into both ends of the diagonal piece to joint it to the other two. I did have to make settings adjustments for the Kreg Jig to work with the mitered joints.
- Measured out and marked where I planned to attach the vertical pieces to the wall studs.
- Used a forstner bit to bore a hole into the previously mentioned marks so the lag screws would be flush.
- Applied stain to each piece and allowed to dry.
- Used 2½” screws to assemble the supports and 3½” lag screws to attach the supports to the wall studs.
- Measured and cut the horizontal planks. I wanted strength and versatility so I went with 2” lumber.