This project is one of my all-time favorites: pipe shelves! With just a few supplies from your local home improvement store, you can have a chic open shelf project that adds just the right amount of industrial edge to any room in your home.
I've been wanting to build something out of an 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! However, I had a lightbulb moment when I wanted to give my bathroom a bit of a face left and needed some cute, yet inexpensive shelving. These wood and pipe shelves were just what I needed! Want to make your own DIY pipe shelves? It's simple - I'll walk you through the entire thing!
Table Of Contents
Pipe Shelves in the Bathroom
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. But, as you can see - it was a success!
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.
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
These shelves have a serious cool factor, coupled with loads of practicality! I love when things can be both useful and stylilish. Even better This project is fairly affordable and simple to put together.
Pipe Shelf Supplies
To make these 3 shelves we used:
- 6 ¾" Floor Flanges
- 6 ¾" Caps
- 6 ¾" x 8" Nipples
- 1 ¼" 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
Where To Buy Pipe Shelves Supplies
Home Depot
For buying in the store, this is what the plumbing pipe items look like on the shelf at Home Depot.
Don't forget, you can shop online at Home Depot and have the items all ready for you to pick up. This is amazing as it saves you from wandering down the aisles looking for this and that or waiting for your online order to arrive via UPS!
Amazon
On Amazon, you can also buy kits for building pipe shelves HERE. They are not put together for you (you still have to screw the pipes together), but it includes all the pieces to make 2 shelves (4 brackets), not including the wood. It would save you the time of picking out each individual component and it would be shipped to your home for you.
Or if you have quite a few shelves to make you can buy pre-painted versions in bulk quantities from Amazon also - floor flanges, nipples (pipe) and caps.
Instructions for Putting Together Your Shelves
- 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.
- Next, screw one floor flange and one cap onto each nipple (ouch). These will be your brackets.
- Then, spray paint the brackets and allow them to thoroughly dry.
- Next, 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 ½" - 3" between the outside of the bracket and the outside end of the board.
- Then, 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.
- Next, 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.
- Finally, screw the 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!
How To Childproof Your Shelves
I did this project several years ago (it's held up GREAT, by the way!). But in that time, 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. However, I don't have anyone in the house who would be pulling down on the shelves or trying to climb up onto them.
However, that isn't the case for everyone - and it's better safe than sorry when it comes to child safety! If you want to secure the wood to the pipes, you can attach pipe straps to the bottom of the wood. All you need to do is place a galvanized pipe strap around each pipe and screw them up into the wood shelves. Below are photos of what the part looks like on the shelf at Home Depot.
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!)
UPDATE: Love this look as much as I do? 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. Along with the top Affordable & Creative DIY shelf Ideas.
Check out the web story version of this article HERE.
Misty
I keep thinking about making these, because they look awesome! Do the wooden boards move or seem unstable on the pipes?
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!!!
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 .
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!
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.
Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces
The shelves turned out wonderfully, Pam! I LOVE the look and they are so functional, too!
taryterre
clever. looks great.
Kari Wagner Hoban
I love this.
Will you come to my house and do it for me?
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!
Diane
Love them, Pam! Oooing and awwing here!
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. 😀
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!
annette sausser
I love it!!!!!!
Kris @ Junk Chic Cottage
Awesome Pam. Love this. Have a great week ahead.
Kris
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 🙂
Summer
I love this idea so much! Very cute ♥