Giant Shelves Made From 2x4s and Plywood

My home features a dry, finished basement. But when we moved in, it was basically one giant, open, wasted space.

My wife, Abby, and I decided one way to fix this would be to build some custom shelves in the back of the main area. The ceiling there drops down a level underneath a sunken living room and some vents. This establishes an “uninhabitable” zone that is perfect for storage.

About a year ago, I custom built a set of giant shelves out of 2x4s, plywood and heavy-duty pocket-hole screws for half of that space. The shelves have held up well. But I hadn’t found time to build another set of shelves for the other half of the space — until recently. Abby and I had some vacation time to burn, so we teamed up and tackled the rest of the project.

See the full build in the video above, or keep reading for more details about how we did it.

Step 1: Design and Limitations

Each shelf section is made up of three elements: 2x4 frames, 2x4 shelf support boards and 3/8” plywood shelf toppers. The 2x4s boards all sit vertically, their strongest orientation. Pocket-hole screws hold the 2x4s together, while 1” drywall screws hold the plywood to the 2x4s.

Pocket hole joinery works great here because it increases usable space, its strong and it reduces the amount of lumber required. It’s also incredibly fast to build, even for beginners. These particular shelves couldn’t be permanently attached to the walls in our basement because we’d like to eventually paint the paneling and replace the carpet. They are light enough to slide in and out of place when empty. You could always attach them to the wall for added strength.

Step 2: Deciding Dimensions

We started by measuring the height, width and depth of the space. We left about an inch of wiggle room at the top and at one side to make it easier to pull the shelves out in one giant piece.

Next, I had to figure out the width of each shelf unit. I divided the width of the entire space by three shelving units. This gave me a number that felt right for balancing open space against structural integrity, but I could have added or subtracted here if the width was too wide or too thin. For practical purposes, I decided to make the first two units the same, round width, then build custom-size shelf supports for the remaining space.

Step 3: Cutting, Drilling the 2x4s

There are tons of boards to cut here, so a length stop is invaluable. I just clamped a piece of scrap metal to my workbench and referenced the end of every board against it for a particular length while cutting with my miter saw.

While I was cutting away, Abby drilled the pocket holes. For the shelf supports, she offset those holes toward one edge of the 2x4 to prevent the screws from colliding when screwed into opposite sides of the frame. See attached sketch for more information.

Step 4: Building the Frames

I started by clearing off a space on my large, flat workbench. A floor works just as well if that’s all that’s available. Then it was a matter of screwing the crosspieces to the vertical posts. We found it easiest to focus on one side of the frame at a time.

Step 5: Building the Shelves

We stood the frames on end, then screwed the shelf shelf supports in place. We kept the support board spacing consistent by measuring from the bottom of the frame and marking the top of where each shelf support board should be.

When you start connecting the different sections together, you can’t use the usual Kreg clamp method anymore, because there’s a shelf support board directly on the other side of the frame (hence the pocket hole offset mentioned earlier). We got around this by having Abby push on the end of the board while I lined it up and screwed it in place.

Step 6: Cutting, Installing the Plywood

Each shelving section gets its own rectangular shelf surface with notches in the corners for the 2x4 columns. It’s a good idea to double check the measurements of these spaces front-to-back and side-to-side in case any them are out of square.

First, we used a circular saw, straight-edge jig and plywood scrap cutting pads to cut the rectangles. Then we marked the corner notches using 2x4 cutoffs. The left and right outside faces use full chunks. The inside faces use half chunks because the adjacent pieces each share 2x4 columns. I cut those notches with the circular saw for speed, though a jigsaw would be more precise.

Finally, we dropped the plywood pieces in place and screwed them down with 1” drywall screws.

That’s it. The project was done!

Step 7: In Review

How much did this project cost?

We spent about $100 on 31 2x4s, $100 on five sheets of plywood, and $10 on pocket hole screws, for a total of about $210.

What tools do you need?

Not counting basic measuring tools, I used an electric miter saw, a drill, a circular saw with DIY straight edge, a Shop Vac, a Kreg pocket hole drilling set with heavy-duty-screw add on and an impact driver.

Bare minimum, I think you need a circular saw or jigsaw with straight edge, the Kreg pocket hole setup and a drill.

How hard was this to build?

Using pocket hole screws makes this shelf build pretty easy. These fasteners are easy to use and help automatically keep everything square, which can be a challenge for new DIYers.

Working on this project with two people is highly recommended. I bet it took me four times as long to make the first set of shelves than it did to build the second set with my wife. It was also much more fun!

Should I tackle this project?

Some big, steel, industrial shelving units can found for cheaper than what we spent here. But there’s no guarantee that they will fit well in your space. Consider this project if you want custom shelving that maximizes storage space in exchange for a potentially higher cost and time spent building.

Comments

[TrishK60]

I have a window covering company and we use shelves like these for storing our orders when they arrive. Now the fire department is telling me that for a sprinklered building there can be a maximum of 6" then a 2" gap then another 6" etc. so that potentially water could flow through. Never mind that when they're covered with boxes water isn't going anywhere! Any suggestions on how we can modify what we've built to come in line with this new code but that will still be sturdy enough to hold our orders?

[PeterG59]

Great video and very clear instructions. One small comment: you don't seem to be wearing hearing protection when using noisy power tools (unless you had earplugs). With my father having suffered severe industrial deafness from the aircraft industry I am very conscious of the need for this. It also helps with concentration and stops the tendency to wince with noise.

[ghfinn]

You mention ‘brackets’ ; but no photo or item #

[andrew_reuter]

Good point. Those "brackets" were just the 2x4 boards that stretched across the width of each "unit" and supported the plywood. I changed "bracket" to "shelf support" or "shelf support board" throughout the tutorial. Thanks!

[ghfinn]

One other clarification, please. I do not know the language. “Biased” the holes. Can you elaborate on this. I am attempting to use your design on wall workbench/shelf. Thanks

[andrew_reuter]

No problem. I changed the language in "Step 3: Cutting, Drilling the 2x4s" a little bit and added a diagram sketch.

What I mean is, we offset the holes to one side of the shelf support boards, instead of aligning them in the middle. That's because those support boards are going to be screwed into the frame boards from opposite sides, at least in the middle sections. If the screws weren't offset, they might hit the screw being screwed into the other side of the board.

This is a tough thing to explain in text. :) Hopefully the new diagram sketch helps. Also check out these time stamps in the video:

2m32s: Note how the two shelf support boards are mounted to opposite sides of the vertical frame board. Because the screws are offset to either the top or the bottom of the board, there's less chance that they'll hit a screw from the opposite board.

3m33s: You can see that the board is offset to its left side in the pocket hole jig. You wouldn't want to go over too far, or else there won't be enough wood to support the screw. A few millimeters or a fraction of an inch should be enough.

Video link:

Hope that helps!

[tytower]

I found if I took a sheet of ply and split it lengthways I had an ideal dimension to work to . I took 3 x 2 s and split them down the middle too. Then on the ground I framed the ply with the timber all round as you have done. Then I take the same split timbers as uprights and use a 3 inch batten screw to screw them to the sides of the shelves/frames . Very happy with mine and I have 5 shelves on each and I have 9 of them in my shed and 6 in another . Best shelves I ever built.

[andrew_reuter]

Very cool! Nice approach.

[Tater Zoid]

I love your video, great job.

[andrew_reuter]

Thank you!

[Gufas]

Great Job.
However these shelves remind me of a photo from the Buchenwald koncentration camp. I simply can't get it out of my mind.
Sorry. Didn't mean to be rude.

[andrew_reuter]

Thank you! I can assure you that any resemblance between those photos is an unfortunate coincidence. That was such a horrible time in history. Thanks for the note.

[Roy L Miller]

A fine job!

[andrew_reuter]

Thank you!

[WandaWandler]

Make another video on how you get you’re wife to help you do construction!!! The shelves look great.

[andrew_reuter]

Bahahaha! Thank you! We had such a good time doing this together. I hate to be corny, but it actually was a nice "relationship building" exercise. It was a great way to work on communication and trust in a low-pressure setting. And once you're done, hey, you've got some shelves!

[hcbland]

I had shelves in my parent's basement just like this. Very useful! As a kid I would climb in and on them. If you build this, please be careful to make sure the shelves are tied-in to the wall, or add diagonal supports to the sides and back. Structures like this are often filled with heavy stuff which can cause severe injury if they tip or collapse. Get professional advise if you're not sure. Not a place for kids to climb on or in (yeah, no fun). Just want people to be safe. Great looking project. Nice job.

[andrew_reuter]

Thank you! And good call on securing the shelves. It would be tough to tip these over because they are pretty heavy and would hit the ceiling when rocking, but it takes about 15 minutes to secure them to the wall, so definitely worth doing. Better safe than sorry, especially when it's such an easy step!

[hyperfocused72]

Nicely done. I'm assuming the final installed plywood pieces are cut to 4' x 4'?

[andrew_reuter]

Thank you! The plywood pieces actually are custom fit and end up varying across the shelves. The leftmost side came out as 44 3/4" deep by 42 1/4" wide. The other two were 43 1/2" wide. Why the variance? The first two units on the right were built with set dimensions, but the last unit we built, on the left, was custom fit for the remaining space. This was a lot easier than trying to make all three shelves the same width and crossing our fingers. Hope that makes sense...