How To Build Cheap Kitchen Shelves From Pallet Boards

We recently added kitchen shelves to a wall, and we’re sharing all about this budget project today.

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I can’t think about the phrase “shelves in the kitchen” without it bringing to mind this quote from Pride and Prejudice. Although in this case, its “in the the closet.”

I don’t remember anything from four years of college, but I have a great memory for tv and movie lines. It’s a really important skill that comes in handy all the time (ha!)

Anyway, back to the kitchen shelves.

How To Build Cheap Kitchen Shelves

It all started with the same pallet boards we used when we made our tool wall organizer. These free boards that came with our pool deck boards are in great condition and are just asking to be used in multiple projects!

In fact, we added shelves to our boys’ bedroom, which we’ll share about in a later post.

This is the blank wall in our kitchen that needed something:

And here are the lovely pallet boards in our very lovely barn:

Sanding

We removed one of the boards from the pallet, cut four sections down to size with our miter saw, and then sanded the wood really well.

We used 80 grit and then switched to 220 grit to get a smooth finish.

I absolutely love this sander that I bought a few years ago from Amazon. It is powerful enough to get the job done quickly, but has low vibration and a great filtration system.

Staining

Next, we stained the boards.

We had several stains to choose from, all leftover from our cabin painting project this summer.

We chose Valspar Canyon Brown stain as it was the best match for the other wood accents in our kitchen and living room.

Two coats of stain were enough to get the look we were going for.

Brackets

We purchased four of these brackets from Home Depot (similar ones from Amazon here.) This was the most expensive part of the project, at $26 for 4.

Each bracket is 6 inches from the curve to the lip, and fits one pallet board perfectly.

Hanging The Shelves

Daniel measured the wall to determine the midline, and then used a level to mark the holes for the brackets.

We installed the bottom shelf just over 5 feet from the floor.

He installed the brackets using drywall anchors as we weren’t able to line the brackets up on a stud.

Then he drilled screws into the underside of the pallet board:

He installed the second shelf 12 inches above the bottom shelf.

Shelf Styling

I added some decor I already had as well as a few items from our cabinets.

The total cost of this project was $26 (the brackets), as the pallet boards were free and we already had everything else. The small stain samples are about $6 at Home Depot, and were enough to cover these boards as well as the four we added in the boys room.