DIY Pipe Shelves- Easiest Tutorial EVER

Last Updated on February 13, 2022

DIY pipe shelves are affordable and super stylish. Learn how to make them yourself with this easy tutorial.

easy DIY pipe shelves

Wow y'all… This is kind of embarrassing. We made these DIY pipe shelves almost 2 years ago for our dining room and I am just now getting around to posting the tutorial. Sorry about that (I'm hanging my head in shame). But, sooooo many of you have asked about the DIY pipe shelves tutorial is finally here. Better late than never, right?

The good news is that I can report that we still LOVE our DIY pipe shelves and they are holding up perfectly. If pipe shelves aren't your jam, we have a whole blog post full of tutorials for a huge variety of DIY shelves  . This is truly one of the easiest industrial shelving projects out there and the hardest part about it is cutting your wood to length (but rest assured the friendly folks at your home improvement store will generally do that for you). Otherwise, the installation could not be more simple.

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DIY Pipe Shelves Tutorial

Materials needed:

And because I know some of you will ask, we got that awesome scrap iron Cheers sign here :)  You can also find a full source list for the other items in the room (including the other DIY projects) at the end of this post.

DIY pipe shelves

Steps:

1) Cut your pine boards to the length you want your shelves to be and stain them.

2) Assemble your “brackets.” To do this, screw one end of each steel nipple into a floor flange on one end and into an end cap on the other end. These will form the brackets for your shelves, so you need at least two completely assembled brackets per shelf (you may need additional support if you plan for shelves longer than 4 feet or so).

installing DIY pipe shelves

3) Attach your assembled brackets to your wall by screwing an appropriate screw/fastener directly through the holes on your floor flanges. You will want to be sure to select a screw with a large enough head to fill the hole and firmly hold the floor flange in place.

installing industrial shelves

4) Place your wood boards on top of your brackets and use 3/4 inch steel two hole pipe straps to secure your shelves to the brackets. We used two straps PER bracket (one on the front and one in the back, for a total for 4 per shelf). This serves TWO purposes: 1) it's a bit safer in a house with kids since they won't be able to accidentally pull a shelf down on themselves and 2) pine boards are inexpensive and imperfect, so the brackets help correct any warping.

industrial shelves

That's it! So, so simple. And the impact in our dining room is HUGE! I added one of these simple wine glass holders (that I spray painted black) beneath one of the shelves since we use ours as a bar area.

Check out the finished DIY pipe shelves in our dining room. We LOVE them!

colorful dining room

colorful dining room with pipe shelves

colorful dining room with pipe shelves

pipe shelves with copper mules

pipe shelves with copper mugs

Source List:

Wall paint: Opal White by Clark+Kensington, eggshell finish.

DIY Projects:

Purchased items:

Need more dining room design ideas? Check out our updated dining room. It got a complete makeover when we renovated our kitchen last year. 

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6 Comments

  1. I love those diy shelves!! I work at a new restaurant and we have been wanting and needing to install desks. Do you think this method would work for desks??

    Thank you,
    Chelsey

  2. Oh, I have to build these! They look awesome and so easy. I actually have left over pipes from when I built Gavin’s wall unit (inspired by your wall units) These would be perfect in the boys’ Bathroom