Built in shelves

Saturday I finally installed some shelves in the odd little spaces at the foot of the basement stairs.

Once again I forgot to get some good before pics, so here's a couple from when we looked at the house before we bought it. This one is looking down the stairs. You can see the odd little wall jutting out on the right side.

This is looking down the hallway in the basement. The odd little wall in the pic above is now on the left side.

I took this one after I started. We've had a cabinet, boxes, bins, etc stacked in this space. It's too small for anything too big, but I hate leaving the space empty- it seems so wasteful.

The process was pretty simple. I used 1" x 10" boards because that's what fit in the space. I attached metal shelf strips (not sure what those are actually called) to each upright board. I left the baseboards attached to the walls, so I put a couple spacers between the wall and the boards so everything would be straight and even. I anchored the boards to the walls in a couple places and the shelves are a tight enough fit that the whole she-bang isn't moving anytime soon.

Insert a couple shelf clips, cut a board to size, and one shelf is finished.

The space on the left is roughly twice as wide as the space on the right, so I ended up with three separate shelving units. The one on the right has bins full of fabric and the two on the left have school and art supplies for LMS, as well as a couple toys that don't fit anywhere else. This pic is taken from the basement rec room, looking toward the shelves.

This pic is taken from the laundry room, looking past the shelves.

The shelves on the right go all the way to the ceiling- the open space will soon be filled :)

The shelves on the left go up as far as the ductwork, but there's still space on the right half for more baskets or bins if I need it. The two uprights in the middle are screwed together for added stability. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to paint the shelves or add trim to the uprights. I have a lot of other projects to work on, so I've got time to think about it.

I need to reorganize what's in the baskets and bins still, but it's already soooo much more organized. I didn't get a picture of them, but the clear bins and blue baskets have been all stacked up, migrating around the basement as we try to get everything situated. Now that I can actually see my fabric I can make some progress on some of my sewing projects. And I can sort through it all and make room for cuter fabric :) Some of my fabric is decidely un-cute.