DIY Pipe Shelves

Allow me to introduce you to my new favorite part of our house, the wall that houses our hand-built pipe shelves.

This project was born out of HomeMade Modern's Pipe Shelves project. The instructions were really easy to follow, although there were a few discrepancies in the estimates. HMM said this project would cost $180 and take 2 hours. The pipes alone cost us over $300 and let's just say it took a little more than 2 hours.

The biggest challenges:

• Removing the price sticker from every single piece of metal, which involved washing the pieces with soap and water.
• Drilling into brick for a few hours and wearing out drill bit after drill bit.
• Leaving the hot dogs we were supposed to have for dinner in the car all day and not realizing it until dinner time.

You know how it goes.

Once the pipes were clean it was a matter of attaching them with the coupling and elbows. Then it was just drill, baby, drill. For hours. Drilling into brick might break some people's spirits, but not Dan's. He's a champ and got the job done.

Another angle for your enjoyment:

We also went with a lower-grade wood than the pine recommended by HMM, mostly because we were over budget on the pipes, but I think this looks just dandy and I was really impressed with the Danish Oil once applied.

It would be really simple to customize this piece and make it higher/shorter/wider/etc. The pipes and fixtures attach in a flash and if you did some planning, you could make this work in any space. Fun fact: a Home Depot employee told us that iron pipes and fixtures are flying off the shelves these days because this look is in right now.

This piece is really amazing and drilling aside, one of the more straightforward projects we've tackled. Now onto another HMM project - a dining room table.