With the ongoing fixing up of my house, trying to find places to put the various things that take up space inside while I’m doing the work has been a real problem. To address this, I decided that I would move everything to the partially finished basement and put it on shelves.
The shelves can be bought, ready made, but the better ones are not cheap and I wanted a lot of space. Since the shelves are probably temporary, I figured the best solution was to make them myself as efficiently and economically as I could. When the renovation work is done, I can always recycled the materials for other things. Maybe to build better, more permanent shelves.

The first thing I did was to cut the plywood that I will use to make the shelves into 12″ wide strips. I’m cutting them free-hand with the sheets set up on my folding sawhorses:

The supports for the shelves are made from pieces cut from regular framing lumber. At the home centre, I picked out the best pieces of lumber I could find. They should be straight and as clear (free of knots and defects) as possible.

It takes three 2×6 that are eight feet long to make all of the supports for a single eight foot long unit. Assembly is easy, just mark the spacing and attach the “rungs” with 2″ wood screws:

After the supports are assembled, the shelves can be fastened with 1-1/2″ wood screws. Diagonal braces are added to the back, but these can be omitted if you screw the shelf unit to the wall (recommended):

I drove screws through the back leg of the supports into the studs that are in the wall. Just two places is enough to keep it from moving.

Both shelf units done covering 16′ of wall:

Nearly 100 square feet (equal to a 10′ x 10′ room) of storage space for less than $150.

Here’s a better look at how the rungs are attached. Glue can be used, but it’s not required if these shelves are holding up normal loads:

I used 1/2″ plywood for the shelves, and with the supports spaced 32″ apart, these will take a lot of weight before bending. These are the parts for a butcher block table I started a few years ago, well over 100lbs: