/ / DIY Lego Shelf Tutorial

DIY Lego Shelf Tutorial

Uncategorized

This DIY Lego Shelf Tutorial was something that came to me on a whim, but when I started pulling it together, it was like it was meant for this space.

When I was working on my son’s room before the complete transformation, which you can see more of HERE and HERE, the idea was for it to grow with him and so far it has. It really hasn’t needed much updating! But every room needs a refresh every once in a while and in this case, his room needed a functionality refresh.

Here was the problem, for the past year, the shelf area that overlooks the living room has been dedicated to Legos. And it didn’t stop there. Every surface in my son’s room was also covered in Legos. Am I alone in this problem? I think not. And I had a solution: operation build cool Lego shelves that were fun and functional!

I started by completely clearing off the wall that I was going to be using. 

The next thing I did was take my stud finder and go along the wall to find the studs, which are the anchor support for the shelves. My stud locations dictated where my Lego shelf would be placed. 

Then I drew out the whole shelf design on the wall so I knew exactly where everything was going. This included marking out the thickness of the primed MDF I used along my level stud line so that I could line up the inside of my bracket. This way I know it’s level, but there’s still enough space for the top. 

After a hardware store run for A LOT of wood, I cut a 2×4 into 1×1 pieces. Those are the wall braces and the spacers- aka the “guts” of the floating shelves. 

To assemble the braces, I put glue on the end of my spacers before screwing them to my brace for an even better hold. I made 4 braces in total.

Tip: Always use star tip screws because they have a better grip.

Once the brace was secure to the wall, I set the top on and then took my spacers and marked out on the top piece where I wanted the spacers to go. There might’ve been an easier way to do this, but it was a win! Then I knew exactly where to glue and nail the spacers. And just like that, my DIY lego shelf tutorial has a frame!

After each self was constructed, I cut the end at a 45 degree angle. I also added a vertical brace to the wall in order to secure it that way too.

I got every corner to line up perfectly except for just one. For that one, I sanded down the little bit of edge that didn’t line up. Once it is patched and painted, you’ll never be able to tell!

This is super important! Don’t forget to secure the shelf into the wall bracket and studs with angled screws.

When the entire shelf is up and secured to the wall, you know what time it is: patch time. I filled in all of the nail holes and seams with wood filler, then once dry, I sanded it down.

Since I sanded some parts of the shelf, I went back through with primer over the entire thing before painting so that when I paint it, the whole shelf will have the same texture and look.  When you’re painting shelves, you will want to use a high sheen enamel paint. The higher the sheen the more durable it is. For the smoothest finish, I recommend using a foam roller.

Then once the shelf is dry, you’ll want to tape that off and come back through and paint the wall. My wall color is Simply White by Benjamin Moore. It’s the perfect warm but not too warm white.

Then I had one more surprise detail for this DIY lego shelf tutorial: LIGHTS! I used LED strip lights with an adhesive back and it was so easy. And these ones can change colors and be synced to music!

For more DIY projects and home decor ideas, follow me on TikTok!

FavoriteLoadingAdd to favorites or read later

Similar Posts