This simple hanging shelf idea is something I came up with a couple years ago to use up some of the scrap steel pipe that we pulled out of the Victorian house we were renovating. Paired with some of our leftover maple counter slab material the overall effect is clean, elegant, and industrial without being as bulky as a lot of the pipe details that are in fashion these days.
The piping is old rusted 1/2” schedule 80 pipe (sch 40 is fine), scrubbed with a wire brush and abrasive pads. The pins holding the shelves up are 5/16” plain steel rod. The maple is drilled with a 7/8 Forstner bit. I’m using 5/16” lag screws to attach the unit to an exposed structural piece (not trim) but I’ve also hung this through the sheet rock and into the studs before. I pilot with a 15/64” drill bit.
A helpful feature is the weight of the shelf cantilevering in the hole to temporarily lock it in place – this lets me place the unit, and then slide the shelves up and down until they look right to my eye, then I mark the locations for the shelves and take the whole thing back down and drill for the pins that will support the shelves.
Originally these shelves were supposed to go in the kitchen but they didn’t look right so we decided to use them in the bathroom instead.
– Brian
