We know — You can’t go a day without seeing another hipster project using cage-free, reclaimed wood pallets, but hear us out: Building out a garage on a budget is always a challenge, especially after moving. You’ve still got to replace all of the sockets that ran off, restock on consumable materials and fasteners, zip-ties, and duck tape — but at the end of the day, you’ve still got to find a place to put it all. On this Wrenchin’ Wednesday, we’ve got a budget-friendly way to build some compact shelves for your garage!
Pallets are venerable DIY project material because they can easily be found for free — Watch your local Craigslist Free section, and most stores won’t mind giving you a few either. With just five minutes and $3 in nails, you can quickly build out a new garage wall on the cheap.
Basic hand tools are needed, though breaking out the magical sawz-all sure saves a lot of time. Proper wood-working power tools are also suitable.Most pallets are 40-inch by 48-inch, giving you enough material for two shelves. Make a cut through the vertical stringers two boards from the end. The center two boards will become the bottom of the shelves.Gently pry out the center deck boards of the pallet. These will later be used as the shelf bottom. Take your time prying the boards up so that you can pull the nails out of the stringer boards without cracking the deck board.Make sure to remove exposed nails. Then make sure you’re throwing the trash, and not on the driveway.The end result is two shelves, and two bottom boards. Simply affix the bottom boards flush with the back of the shelves so that they can sit flush with the wall.Make sure you grab a stud finder and tie your boards into the wall studs — on their own, they’re about 10 pounds. In our case, the plywood wall of our garage makes for a great anchor point, though we still tied the shelf into every wall stud we could. Nail/screw/bolt along the top board of the shelf, and make sure you’re level before you commit!Only buying a box of nails, this project tidied up a new garage in no time for almost no dollars. While the shelves are shallow, they can hold small items and most fluid bottles.Don’t sweat if the shelf bottom sticks out, pallets aren’t made by the hand of Norm Abrams — but they make for great clamp storage!
Wrenchin’ Wednesday is a weekly garage-hackamajig, wrenching smarter-not-harder with tips that make working on your project easier, cheaper, and maybe even a bit faster. We’re probably not the first with any of these ideas, but you won’t be the last to know every Wednesday!
Got any home-brew tools that you’ve made? Send them to HOTROD@HOTROD.com
