How To Build Easy Shelves in A Wardrobe

Were you guys here when I scored this amazing antique wardrobe at an antique store? I originally thought it was from the 1800s as it has similar details to others from that timeframe. But after close inspection, we think it was a replicate made in the early 1900s—still, a score on our part. I really wanted to build some shelves in the unit to store blankets and games, and I thought I would write a blog to teach you how to build easy shelves in a wardrobe (or any piece of furniture)!

How To Build Easy Shelves

For this project we bought this wood and had these items on hand

• Level
• Drill
• 2″ Nail gun nails + Nail gun
• Stain – We used this one
• Varnish – Here’s what we use
• 2×2
• 1×3
• Laminated pine boards

Here is an easy video to follow of how we hung up the stringers. I’m terrible at shooting progress, and I only took videos – no photos.

This project took us a total of an hour. You basically install the 2×2 stringers on the back and sides and then slide the laminated pine board on top. You could stop there If you like, but we wanted the shelves to appear thicker, so we installed faces out of 1×3’s.

The inside of the wardrobe is much more orange than the outside as I did whitewash the outside. So we wanted to match the inside stain to the shelves. We used this stain, and it blended pretty seamlessly. We believe this is built out of pine that was sealed.

One thing I wanted to highlight is, this will be used for storage. It might look very curated in the photos but this is not how it will look on a regular basis! But you aren’t on here to be inspired by my junk.

We ended up putting three shelves in the wardrobe that are 13″ deep and 4 feet wide. This is a huge wardrobe at 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide.