Everyone can use a little extra shelf space to store valuables and eliminate clutter. Installing shelves in your closet is an excellent way to do that. Follow these ten easy steps to installing your new closet shelf.
Decide where you want to put your new shelves and take complete measurements of the closet.
Are your walls made of, brick (masonry), drywall or concrete? If you’re working with brick or concrete, you may need to use special drill bits, and a battery powered drill may not have enough torque to do the job. Also, mistakes you make in brick and concrete are going to be more difficult to repair than drywall would be. If you have to work with these materials, be sure of everything you are going to do before you do it.
If you’re working with drywall, find your studs- that’s the frame behind the drywall. The best way is probably to use a stud-finder. These are available at nearly any hardware store. Or, if you’re feeling confident, you can tap on the wall to find the studs. A hollow sound means there’s no stud, a less hollow sound indicates a stud. If you’re new to stud finding, take some time to get acquainted with the different sounds walls make when you tap on different parts of them.
Determine the exact location where you wish your shelves to be. Use a level and a pencil to draw a line exactly where the bottom lip of the shelf will be when it touches the wall. Don’t be afraid to mark up your walls. You can always repaint, and a little pencil mark is a lot better than a crooked shelf.
Using the lines you have already drawn, draw new lines at right angles to represent the edge of your brackets. You may place the brackets where they will go and trace the edges and holes so that you will know where to drill. Use your level to check that everything is straight.
NOTE: If you are going to use anchors, you will need to make the holes slightly larger than the screws. If you intend to screw directly into the stud, use a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the screws. If you are not sure exactly what size drill bit you should use, guess down- that uses the smallest drill bit you think might be right first. If you are wrong, you can always re-drill it with a larger bit.
Place the anchors into the holes you have made and carefully hammer them into place. Some anchors lock permanently into place when inserted, so you should be sure your hole is in the right place before inserting, otherwise you may have more repair work to do than you would otherwise.
Using your pilot holes and/or anchors, screw your brackets into place being sure they line up correctly with the shelf line you drew when you started.
If your shelves are the kind that need to be screwed into the brackets, you may want to use a clamp to hold the shelf in place while you drill. If you’re working in a tight space where you can’t hold your shelf in place manually, this might be a good idea. Check the placement of your shelf after drilling in the first screw part of the way. Then screw in all of the screws part way and check again that your shelf is where you want it to be.
Now that you’ve got a little bit more shelf space, you can free up a little bit of clutter from the floor of your closet or any other part of your house. Take care not to overload your shelf. If you used strong anchors or drilled into concrete or masonry- then your shelf can probably hold just about anything you’re likely to put on it.
If you suspect your shelves may not be as strong as you had hoped they would be, there are a few ways to make them stronger. By using finishing molding, caulk, and paint you can reinforce your shelf somewhat while making it look like a more natural design element of your closet.
