I’ve been wanting to build something out of industrial pipe for the last few years, but I never really had a good reason to try my hand at pipe fitting (all the professional pipefitters in the world are glaring at me right now).
I’ve seen lots of great projects. End tables, curtain rods, paper towel holders. Even dog beds.
So I got busy in the bathroom last weekend building some new industrial pipe shelves.
Because hey, if you’re going to use plumbing pipe for a DIY project anywhere in your house, it might as well be in the bathroom.
A couple years ago when we renovated my son’s bathroom and made it handicap accessible, we opted to use vintage gym baskets as “shelves”. You can see more of that initial renovation on my Industrial Style Child’s Bathroom post.
The problem was a gym basket, as fun as it looks, just doesn’t have enough usable surface area to be used as a shelf.
There I said it. Gym baskets just don’t work that well.
I can not tell you how many times I sat down on the potty, bumped the toilet lid and the razor fell over and hit me in the back. And since this doubles as a guest bathroom, you just can’t be having razors cutting everyone’s back all up.
Margie – “Why do you have a bunch of band-aids on your back, Susie?”
Susie – “Oh, I spent the night at Pam’s house.”
Margie – “Enough said.”
So we decided to ditch the vintage gym basket look and go for a more traditional shelving idea. Well, as long as you consider industrial pipe and reclaimed lumber “traditional”.
DIY Industrial Pipe Shelves Tutorial
Supplies:
For 3 shelves we used
- 6 3/4″ Floor Flanges
- 6 3/4″ Caps
- 6 3/4″ x 8″ Nipples
- 1 1/4″ x 8 – 3.18 cm Coarse Thread Drywall Screws
- 1 Board cut to the length you need (in our case we used reclaimed lumber that was roughly 2″ wide x 6″ deep x 5′ long, cut in thirds – if you buy a new board from the hardware store, have them cut it to length for you)
- Black Spray Paint (I used less than 1 can of Rustoleum’s Universal Hammered Paint & Primer In One in the black color)
- Measuring Tape
- Phillips head screwdriver, handheld or electric as you prefer
- Pencil
- Level
(A) Coarse Thread Drywall Screws / (B) Floor Flange / (C) Nipple / (D) Cap
Instructions:
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- If you have shelves already in place, remove those shelves and patch any holes if necessary
- Wipe the grease and grime off your plumbing parts. I used soap and water for the floor flanges and the caps and since the nipples had tape wrapped around the price stickers, I used some Goo Gone on those. I think they are covered in “greasy stuff” so they don’t rust while at the store, which reminds me, be careful when carrying them around the store while wearing a white shirt. Been there, done that, not doing it again.
- Screw one floor flange and one cap onto each nipple (ouch). These will be your brackets.
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- Spray paint the brackets and allow to thoroughly dry.
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- Decide where you want shelves to be.
- If possible, try to align your flanges with wall studs. We were only able to do this on one side of the shelf, due to the size of the shelves, but still felt they were pretty darn sturdy. You may want to use dry wall anchors if you are unable to hit a stud with your placement of the brackets.
- It looks best to have at least 2 1/2″ – 3″ between the outside of the bracket and the outside end of the board.
- Position your first bracket on the stud and screw into place.
- You can use a pencil to mark the floor flange holes onto the wall if you want to drill pilot holes first. I went straight into the drywall without pilot holes though. I’m wild like that.
- Hold your second bracket in place, put the board on top of the bracket and the level on top of that. Once the board is showing it is in a level position, screw the 2nd bracket into place.
- Screw remaining shelves into place the same way making sure they are spaced equal distances apart and all the brackets are placed vertically in line with each other.
- Stand back and admire your handiwork.
Really these industrial pipe shelves are probably one of the easiest DIY projects out there. They give you so much bang for your buck!
And just in case you need a visual reference, this is what the plumbing pipe items look like on the shelf at Home Depot.
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- Floor Flanges
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- Nipples
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- Caps
Don’t forget, you can shop online at Home Depot and have the items all ready for you to pick up. Saves you from wandering down the aisles looking for this and that or waiting for your online order to arrive via UPS!
How To Use Home Depot’s
Order Online & Pick Up In Store Option
It’s really easy to order online with Home Depot and then pick up your order at your local store. All you have to do is put it in the shopping cart called Pick Up In Store Today.
Here are where the items for this project can be found online:
- 3/4 in. Black Malleable Iron FPT Floor Flange
- 3/4 in x 8 in Black Steel Nipple
- 3/4 in Black Malleable Iron Cap
- 3/4 in. Galvanized Tube Strap 2 Hole (10-Pack)
- Rustoleum’s Universal Hammered Paint & Primer In One (black)
Once you have picked out all your items and put them in the Pick Up In Store Today shopping cart, just Check-Out like normal. Your items will be waiting for you all nice and neatly put together at the front counter at your Home Depot store. I love having them do all the shopping for me and then I can just quickly pop in, grab my cart full of stuff up front and get back home FAST.
Remember – put your items in the shopping cart called Pick Up In Store Today and it will be ready for you when you get there.
Have you taken the plunge and made anything fun out of plumbing pipe lately? (You know, there are really no good plumbing puns out there if I have to resort to a “plunge” reference!)
EDITED TO ADD: My number one asked question about this project is what to do if you want to attach the pipes to the boards.
Now in my case, the weight of the boards are enough to keep the wood in place and I don’t have anyone in the house who would be pulling down on the shelves or trying to climb up on them.
But if you want to secure the wood to the pipes, you can attach pipe straps to the bottom of the wood, by placing a strap around each pipe and screwing them up into the wood shelves. Below are photos of what the part looks like on the shelf at Home Depot.
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- Pipe Straps
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- Out of The Package
UPDATE: I’ve collected some other Industrial Pipe Projects for you from around the internet and listed them in my 10 Best DIY Industrial Pipe Projects.
Summer
I love this idea so much! Very cute ♥
Melissa's Antiques
You have GOT to be kidding me! Pam, I am making the EXACT shelves AS I TYPE THIS. I saw some in a restoration hardware catalog, and I’m like “I can make that.” And guess what else? They’re going in the bathroom that I just painted grey… above the potty. Great minds think alike, eh?
Pam
No way!!! We were separated at birth, I tell you!
Patty
Add a picture of yours Melissa 🙂
Kris @ Junk Chic Cottage
Awesome Pam. Love this. Have a great week ahead.
Kris
annette sausser
I love it!!!!!!
Florence
They look very nice & a big improvement over the baskets, which don’t hold much, as you said. Does your son like them?
Pam
He does!
Tracy
What a fantastic job you did! Love these. We are just in the process of redoing our main bath and I’m wanting some wood farmhouse shelves. This may do the trick and I so appreciate the Home Depot shelf view. 😀
Diane
Love them, Pam! Oooing and awwing here!
Teresa S
Luv the look! Once again we are thinking very much alike as I am going to do a variation of this in my laundry room. Hope mine look as nice as yours!!! Thanx for the inspiration!
Kari Wagner Hoban
I love this.
Will you come to my house and do it for me?
taryterre
clever. looks great.
Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces
The shelves turned out wonderfully, Pam! I LOVE the look and they are so functional, too!
Jess
These look excellent! I just did something similar myself, and I was wondering how far apart you spaced your shelves vertically…
Pam
We ended up spacing them 12.5 inches from the bottom of one flange to the bottom on the next one vertically. And the bottom of the flange for the 1st shelf is 13″ above the top of the toilet tank. That spacing seemed to make sense with lining them up so by the time we got to the top shelf it wasn’t so high that it wasn’t useful.
Susan
Probably one of the best DIY tutorials I’ve run across, largely because of the source pics at the end. Otherwise I’d be stumbling all over the place looking for the parts. I’ve been thinking about doing a more “industrial” theme in my kitchen and this would really fit the bill.
Pam
Thanks Susan! I thought it’d be nice to see what they look like in the store!
Brittney
Do you find that the shelves are unstable? I have a 2 year old who likes to climb and I’m afraid he might pull the shelf down.
Pam
Oh, no. Not stable enough for a 2 year old 🙂 I would put pipe clips around the pipes and screwed up into the bottom of the shelves in that case. That would keep the boards firmly attached to the pipes. My boards are simply setting on top of the pipes in the photos. Here’s what they would look like at Home Depot or Lowes – http://bit.ly/PipeClamps .
Joyce Lewis
I’ve been looking for something industrial to go into our master bathroom after we are done renovating it (we took on 100 year old home!) This is perfect…THANK YOU!!!
Misty
I keep thinking about making these, because they look awesome! Do the wooden boards move or seem unstable on the pipes?
Kyla
I did this in master bathroom!! We love it!!
Katie
Do you glue down the wood to pipes or secure the wood in any way? Thinking of doing this in a kids room but would want to secure it…Any suggestions?
Pam
I did not, but you definitely should if children will be around them (which sounds odd since it’s in my son’s bathroom, but he’s disabled and wouldn’t be pulling on them so I skipped that step for us). I would put pipe clips on the underside screwing up into the shelves to keep them in place. You can paint them to match the pipes. You can buy them anywhere, but here’s what they look like at Home Depot – http://bit.ly/PipeClamps .
John Carnaghie
You would only need two pipe clips per shelf. Before you paint the hardware, run the pipes, etc. through a dishwasher if you have one or five them a good hot water/detergent wash. This will remove any oil, etc. from the pipes and make the paint stick much better
Geeta
Hi Pam,
These shelves are beautiful. It’s gonna be my first DIY. I am so excited to start. Just couple of questions, where did you buy the reclaimed timber from? Will they cut it to the size you want? Thank you once again for such neat step by step post.
Pam
The wood I used was from a little local shop (they sell farmhouse decor and stuff like that and just happened to have some boards sitting there one day I stopped in). But Home Depot just started selling a similar looking wood which they call barn wood and they can cut to size for you right there in the store.
Carmen Martinez
Awesome and thank you for the safety tip! Lovely and easy and as soon as we move into our new home will be putting up these shelves, ~ Carmen
Tony
Very nice job! Keep it up 🙂
Christy Roppel
Hi!
I have a couple of quick question: I noticed that your boards aren’t exactly flush with the ends of the pipes. Does this cause a problem? Also, I noticed you don’t have the boards secured on the bottom. Is that necessary? I love your thick “boards”. Did you custom cut them?
Thanks!
You did a wonderful job!
Jen
Where did you find the lumber for the shelves?
Jessica
Love this project! Thank you for sharing it with us! Quick question though–how many screws do you use on each side? Is it only one per floor flange? Sorry if you mentioned it and I just missed it. :/
Thanks again!!
Pam
No problem, it’s 4 screws per floor flange.
Melissa Pearson
These are Amazing.. I’ve pictured this in my head now for years, i’m so glad someone finally got it right.. Thank you!
Christy Kelly
Curious what this project cost total. Pipe materials can be pretty pricey. I like to know final cost before getting into a project.
Pam
They are not super inexpensive, no. If I remember correctly they were about $20 a shelf.
Karen
Fun and practical projects. I enjoyed your humor and the ideas!
Justine
Hi how do you attach the wood to the piping so the shelves stay put
Pam
I just amended the tutorial to tell you how to do that and I said: “In my case, the weight of the boards are enough to keep the wood in place and I don’t have anyone in the house who would be pulling down on the shelves or trying to climb up on them. But if you want to secure the wood to the pipes, you can attach pipe straps to the bottom of the wood, by placing a strap around each pipe and screwing them up into the wood shelves.”
And then I showed photos of what the pipe straps look like on the hardware store shelf. You would probably want to paint them to match the shelves.
Jessica
Sadly, pipes and flanges have gone up so much in price lately. The flanges here are almost $9 each! We planned to make three shelves but it was going to cost $100 in pipes alone. ? We have some butcher block remaining from a kitchen reno and planned to use that for shelves. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Justine M
The barn wood and pipes are very heavy. What did or would you use to anchor them into the drywall? Especailly if no studs line up with the space? What size anchor and type?
Betty
Love this idea and your detailed instructions. I can’t find any wood on Home Depot’s site that is thicker than 1″ though. Can you provide more info on how to find the wood?
Thanks!!
Pam
I’m so sorry, I just noticed your comment. The wood I used was reclaimed lumber that I bought at a small local store, but if you go to Home Depot they should have 2 x 6 x 8’s in the framing wood. Here is a link to where I can see it on the site, but it may be different if you’re in a different part of the country – http://www.homedepot.com/p/2-in-x-6-in-x-8-ft-2-and-Better-Kiln-Dried-Heat-Treated-Spruce-Pine-Fir-Lumber-161713/100037451. And it’s going to be new and not weathered (although you could stain it). It does look like the “weathered barn wood” they have at Home Depot is only 1″ thick though.
Laure Moluski
Hi Pam. This is the first time I have ever replied to a blog post, but I just had to because you are soooooo funny! I found myself laughing several times as I read this. It’s also the most helpful DIY post I’ve seen. You definitely went above and beyond with all the links and in-store photos.
I love what you’ve done and have been thinking of trying something similar but was a bit intimidated. Will definitely be following!
Maddison Walsh
I love these shelves – beautiful and practical. Lovely idea and you did a great job. Thanks for sharing this.
Mylissa Lynn
I love the shelves. It was a project I actually followed through and finished.
Stuart
Great shelves! I have built quite a few pipe projects. If you wish to find cheaper piping go to Supplyhouse.com
TROY
Great looking shelves! I’m doing the exact same in our master bath and by the looks of it, we could have had the same builder… layout looks almost identical to ours lol .
So we bought 8” nipples and the wood we bought was 8” depth as well which seems to fit almost perfectly between the flange and cap. Did you say your wood was only 6” in depth? Do you know the exact wood depth you used? I dont want ours to stick out too far so I’m debating on if i should go get 6” nipples and wood… thanks!
Pam
On ours, we did 8″ nipples and 6″ wood (it’s actually closer to 5 3/4″). You could definitely do the 8″ wood (which is going to be closer to 7 1/4″ just by the way they sell wood), but it might be really close to laying up on the flange in the back or the cap part in the front. I think you’d have to screw together one side bracket and see if the 8″ wood just fits or if it’s just a hair over. We went back and forth at Home Depot and just decided that since we had already bought the 6″ wood, we’d go with the 8″ nipples. It was more of an aesthetic thing at that point.
J
I never thought about using pipes. This is fantastic, Pam! Where did you get the idea for this? I’ve never seen anything like it.
Angela Long
Love the shelves & will try this out! Working on restoring an old chest of drawers with veneer UGH!
I made a garment rack with galvanized piping back in March…..now I need another one?it’s better than a closet. You can see everything. Once yo do it it’s not so bad. I can’t wait to try out this shelving.
FABULOUS idea!
Thank you for sharing.
Angie
Michelle
Hi the shelves are beautiful. I’m doing my own this week. I was wanting to know what color stain did you use?
Thanks
Pam
I actually did not use a stain at all. My boards were reclaimed wood, so they already had that look to them. I would look on the shelf at Home Depot at the MinWax stains and see if there is a stain color you love, but I think a pine colored stain would be similar.
Kylie
Just thought I’d share as I was doing this project, I found on Amazon you can get Pipe Decor industrial Shelf Brackets for less than half the price of buying all the pieces at the hardware store. They come complete as a set of 4 and they are already black.
Jackie Slepoy
I am a visual learner and your directions are perfect! Love this and can’t wait to try! Thanks!
Danielle
Could you use 1/2 inch flange, nipple and cap? Or would it be too thin?
Pam
You could use 1/2″ if you want. I think the 3/4″ gives it a “hefty” look, but the 1/2″ looks good also and should be equally as strong for what you’re using it for.