DIY Laundry Room Shelf Using Old Curtain Rod

We took a little time this weekend to clean, simplify & add functionality to our laundry room.  

 

D and I made a little shelf from an old curtain rod and some scrap wood from the garage.  

Now I have a place to keep lost socks, collect loose coins in his Grandpa's old change jar and hang items that need to skip the dryer. 

Here's what we used to make the shelf:

Tools:

Drills

Square

Level

Screws

Counter Sink

Drill bits

Saw

Pencil

Material:

Shelf: Scrap piece of plywood - 21x6 in  (you could also use MDF for this if you have it)

Side Support: Scrap 1x4 MDF trim pieces - 2 pieces cut 6in long

Back Support: Scrap 1x4 MDF trim piece - 1 piece cut to 20in long

Here is how we did it:

 

Step 1

D pre-drilled out the holes to connect the side support pieces to the back support piece of trim

Step 2
Next he marked the location for the holes to hold the curtain rod, these were 2 inches from the bottom of the trim.  

The trick to this step was to keep the rod from going all the way through the trim, he achieved this by only drilling half way through the side support pieces.  

He marked how far he wanted to drill the hole using painters tape 1/2 inch up from the tip of the bit. 

 Then he drilled the holes, stopping when the tape hit the trim.  Brilliant. 

Step 3
Paint.  I used Glidden's Dusty Miller paint color.  

Step 4
Cut the shower rod (20 1/4 inches) 

Step 5
Assemble the supporting pieces - D used 2 screws to attach the first side piece to the back support piece.  Next position the rod, add the hooks and fit the second side piece onto the rod.   He used a mallet to get the rod snugly into the pre-drilled holes. 

Use two screws to attach the second side piece to the back support piece. 

Step 6
Attach the shelf to the support pieces, for us this involved a LOT of banging and finagling. 

Step 7 
Touch up the paint.  For me this included painting a few sides I totally missed.  Whoops. 

I also painted two little signs for the shelf on some scrap wood.

Step 8
Hang the shelf using (long) screws.  

I love how this little shelf turned out, I know it is going to get a lot of use & we always love finding things to build with material we find around our place.  

D also hung curtains for me & we cleaned out some clutter, feels so fresh in our little laundry room - what a great little project to start the new year! 
~ D & H