Buy yourself a tall $30 bookcase then, using two L-brackets, secure the top of your bookcase or shelves to the studs in the kitchen or garage wall. Next, simply wedge a spring rod inside the shelf about 1 inch from the top and fold a bedsheet, a piece of fabric or hang a curtain that matches your room's decor over the rod. These spring-rods are sold at Walmart, Home Depot and IKEA.
Spring-rods come in many sizes and the length can be adjusted in one of 2 ways depending on the type you buy. One type gets larger and smaller simply by turning half of the rod clockwise or counter-clockwise. Another type uses a screwdriver to turn a screw at the base of a spring to adjust the size. Spring-rods come in white or gold and cost from $2 to about $8. You can thread the spring-rod through the hem of a sheet (after removing several inches of stitching at either side of the hem) or simply fold your fabric over the rod so the fabric covers the whole bookcase and you can't see your food.
The least expensive bookcases come in a box and you need to assemble them yourselves. They usually come in white, black and a fake woodgrain. My favorite place to buy them is a liquidation store like "Big Lots" or Thrift Stores because that's where you'll get the best prices. Be sure to look around, they go on sale often at Target and K-mart and every store has different prices. I recently bought a set 72 inches high by 4 feet wide brand new for only $30, these were melamine over particleboard.
If you want real wood, you'll need to paint or stain them for easy cleaning. If they need painted, I suggest you paint them to match your walls. You'll wonder how you ever lived without this extra storage space!
When I was younger, I raised 4 kids and didn't have enough cabinets to store all our food when we bought a tiny house. Against one bare wall in our kitchen, I simply put in a row of matching shelves and hung curtains on each to hide the messy food. Costco, here we come!
* A Note: Sometimes it's cheaper to buy shelves made for garage use instead of home use.
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That is a wonderful idea! Liz
Got a picture? That would help me alot. Sounds interesting.
We tried this and it's a great idea. As a matter of fact, we moved the refrigerator over from the corner and put two bookshelves in the corner to create a mini-pantry with the side of the refrigerator as one wall where we have magnets to hang up grocery list, freezer inventory and any new recipes we want to try. Using another tip, we cover the fridge top and shelving tops with plastic wrap to save time on cleaning. Thanks for the great inspiration!
A picture would help so much, could you do another post with a picture?
For about $40.00 you can get a five tier, resin shelf unit from Walmart. The shelves are much deeper than those in a book shelf.
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