My wife and I bought a new house a few years ago. Like so many houses these days, the pantry is just a small closet with shelves that only extend 12 inches from the back wall. I thought about it for a while and came up with a cheap solution that would fit our needs. I did not want to redesign or rip out what was already there, even though part of me wanted to rip it all out and start over.

The existing shelves are made from 12' wide and 3/4 MDF. They are attached to the wall by a leger board that is 1 1/2 x 3/4. This leaves 12" of useable space.

Step 1: Materials and Cost

I went to Home depot to see what I could come up with. I bought a MDF shelf board that was 10 foot long, 11 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick. I also purchased a 8 foot long 1 1/2 x 3/4 MDF board. Both boards were pre-primed this all cost me less than $20.00.

Step 2: Preping, Cutting and Installation

I cleaned up the caulking from the edge of the original ledger. This is so my new boards will be as flush as possible to the existing board. I then cut the new ledger and shelf boards to the length needed. After locating the studs, I pre drilled and countersunk 2 screws in each rail. For the shelves I added a bead of wood glue before the screws.

Step 3: Finishing

For the final steps I ran a bead of caulking where the new wood meets the wall. After the caulking dried I removed everything from the shelves and gave it a fresh coat of paint. This whole project cost me less than $20 and took around an hour to complete. Sometimes its nice to work with some cheap wood on a simple project.

Thanks for reading!