diy wraparound kitchen shelving
last time i posted about our kitchen, it looked really really bad. i don’t know who these people are that only need four cabinets, but i am not them people. as you can see from the photo, it looks like they went the cheap way with it and said it looked enough like a kitchen with the one wall cabinet and saved the money and left.
but here it is now! stuff everywhere!
in order to do shelving across the whole wall AND the corner and small wall on the side, we didn’t know how to go about it for cheap. we considered getting wood cut but the price and math and thickness worked out that we went with ikea lack shelves.
because of the weird lengths of our walls and ikeas three size options, we used three 74 3/4″ long lack shelves and six 11 3/4″ long lack shelves. meaning we had to use two tiny shelves instead of medium sized on the other wall.
here is the only process shot. it was a nightmare getting these to line up.
because the mounting hardware for the lack shelf is hidden in the back, it’s a matter of lining up the hardware versus where the shelf actually sits. so basically it’s too hard for the normal civilian. there was a lot of swearing happening.
where they all meet is good, it’s not perfect at all. i’m used to it now, but looking at these photos makes me cringe a tiny bit.
we were freaking out for the first few days that they’d just collapse so we put a couple of hopefully invisible brackets on the long shelves and painted them white.
and if there’s an earthquake, we’re fucked. i mean. when there’s an earthquake. ugh.
until then, i’m super happy.
yeah, those corners need some fixing.
also, where the hell do i put that gross microwave? i don’t feel like buying a new one. where do people put microwaves?!
hi, I stumbled upon this post while googling “lack shelves in kitchen.” I love what you did. I’m about to install my own and was curious how these have held up. Also, you noted adding invisible brackets on the long shelves. I’m hoping you could share more about those brackets. Thanks! -Holly
hi holly, sorry for the late response! they’ve held up fine. the brackets we used were little L brackets that we attached to the top and painted white. not sure if they made much of a difference, but we haven’t had an accidents yet!
This is so beautiful! My husband and I are wanting to do almost the exact same thing in our kitchen, but the weight capacity of these shelves makes me nervous when I think about putting heavy (and expensive) dishes and glassware on them. Did you reinforce them? How? Have you been happy with their performance so far? Get nervous about things crashing?
hey jordan – so far so good. we live in los angeles so basically freak out about earthquakes constantly, but they’ve been fine so far, no issues. we did reinforce them slightly by adding some small brackets on the top , but honestly not sure how much that changed anything. good luck!
Where did you get the stay healthy print? It’s adorable!
Not to sound like the craziest hippie, but try going without the microwave! I decided not to buy one the last time I moved cross-country, and I’ve actually not really missed it at all. I would probably be lost without my wok, though (it’s what I use to reheat almost everything, most of my leftovers being Thai anyway).
i’m with you — but i LOVE frozen burritos just too much. (i have a thing for frozen burritos)
I’ve been digging through your DIY archives for inspiration and stumbled upon this! I’ve seen a lot of people store their microwaves in their pantry. It would definitely require a DIY to find a way to plug the sucker in, but its doable! I also know a couple whose laundry room is near to their kitchen and, since most guests don’t typically need to hang out in the laundry room, they put their microwave in there!
This question is actually not about the shelves, but I do love them. I’m curious about the cabinet next to the stove because our kitchen is configured exactly like this, and I cannot figure out how to utilize the dead space in that cabinet next to the stove! It’s driving me bananas. What do you do with it?