Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Own Slim DIY Shelves

Short on storage? This easy DIY project shows you how to create narrow shelves that fit even the tightest spaces

Look what I found at a yard sale.

Seriously.

And there were two of them for $80.

In all my yard sale years I’ve never seen anything like them.

I had walked the entire yard sale twice and was heading to my car to leave when I spotted these at the back of the garage with piles of wood. I think they were only still there because they blended in with the piles of lumber scraps in the corner.

I couldn’t believe it when I moved the pieces of wood aside and saw a door. I felt like I was on an HGTV show and someone was going to pop out and start filming my cartwheels across the yard.

I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do with them. But we loaded them into the car and brought them home and they sat under the carport for four months.

Until.

Until one day when I walked upstairs and the most brilliant idea popped into my brain all because of a bottle of shampoo.

And I decided to do this.

Let’s start with a pulled-back view so you can see them in all their glory so my idea will make so much more sense.

It looks like they used to be cabinets in someone’s long-ago kitchen or dining room. They are super narrow (about six inches) and each cabinet has two doors that are about ten inches wide. I think they were built into a wall and someone just pulled them out during a renovation.

At first, I looked around the house for places to build them in and I didn’t really have a place for them and then I came up with the idea of making them into free-standing cabinets for the dining room for all my milk glass and vases.

But life happened and the free-standing cabinets never became a thing.

Which ended up becoming the most fortuitous thing ever.

Because instead?

We are using the cabinets here.

See this long and narrow bathroom?

It’s a super frustrating space.

You could fit the amount of storage in this bathroom into a shoebox.

There are two drawers that have toothpaste and a few odds and ends, but all of my bath stuff and extra shampoo and conditioner and cotton balls and bath soap and extra hand soap is all outside the bathroom because that’s where the storage is.

You can kind of see it from this angle.

See the hallway outside the bathroom? It’s the hallway right by the stairs and that’s where all the bathroom stuff is kept.

Which is fine 80% of the time.

Until you are ready to take a bath and forget the bubble bath.

Or you need extra toilet paper.

Or you need a bottle of shampoo because someone borrowed the shampoo and you discover you are completely shampooless.

Then?

It’s so awkward to have to walk out of the bathroom into the hallway to get all those random beauty supplies.

If only I had storage in the bathroom.

If only I had cabinets.

BUT WAIT…..

…..I DO!!!!!!!

What if we built these cabinets into the narrow hallway? Can you imagine it? Now that I pointed it out isn’t it the best yard sale project ever? We’ve never been able to add a cabinet here before because of the depth of the room, but the cabinets wouldn’t really take up any space if they were built directly into the wall.

And what if we added shelving inside?

There would be tons of space for all the shampoo and lotion and handsoap and paper towels and toilet paper.

AND THERE WERE TWO OF THEM.

Double the space. Double the storage. Double the shampoo bottles.

I had my husband bring them upstairs so we could visualize it.

They were originally built into the wall in some long ago house? Why couldn’t we build them into the wall here?

And in amazing news?

The cabinets fit perfectly into the space. Because they are so narrow they are the exact depth of our wall. The doors are only about 10 inches wide, so there’s enough space to open them up in the hallway.

The goal is to finish the project within a week. So this is our plan starting tomorrow:

• strip the cabinets
• cut open the wall to the width of the cabinets (being extra careful of any electrical wires in the wall)
• add the cabinets to the bathroom wall
• add four shelves to each cabinet (I think they will be stationary shelves)
• caulk and paint the cabinets to match the existing wall color
• add new hinges and hardware to the cabinets

Let’s envision it one more time.

From this.

To this.

Won’t it be amazing when it’s finished?

And look how close the cabinets are going to be to the shower.

Sigh.

The only thing better than a yard sale find?

Is one that holds all the shampoo bottles you could ever want within arm’s reach.

• Looking for more space-saving ideas? Don’t miss our guide on DIY Over-the-Door Storage Hacks.”