Reposhture Studio: How-to Make Basketball Rack Shelves

November 8, 2013

How-to Make Basketball Rack Shelves

Since making my Basketball Rack Shelves,

I am obsessed with finding another rack! I want to make these over and over again. This is one of those projects that if my house was on fire and I had gotten my kids, dog and husband out, I would run back in and save.

No who am I kidding....I would have loaded everyone ON the rack and wheeled them out.

I love the vintage industrial vibe that it gives off, I love the warmth of the wood and to tell you the truth....I love how freaking easy it was to make!

Yes, I am going to show you how easy...don't blink it is over that quick!

What you need:

Rack

drill

paddle drill bit

clamps

sharpie

wood planks ( I used reclaimed barn wood)

Find a rack that can be disassembled.

It does not need to be a basketball rack. Just make sure that you can take it apart to slide the wood on. Grab your side piece and hold onto it. You are going to used it as your template.

Cut your wood to the length that you want. My rack is 40" long so I made my planks 45" long because I wanted overhang on either side. Clamp your wood together on both sides using the clamp. Make sure it is very tight because you are going to drill through all pieces. You need to drill through all pieces at the exact same point or it will not fit back on your rack correctly.

Mark your pieces using the end piece and measure in equidistant form the ends. Since my planks were 5" longer than the assembled rack, I measured in 2.5" on each end and then marked where the holes should go. See the sharpie rectangle? You are gong to drill inside the end of that marking using your paddle drill bit. I used a 7/16 drill bit which was a little too small but the 3/4" would have been too big. I wanted it snug so I went smaller and then angled my drill a bit to make the hold a bit bigger. Try sliding the side piece into the wood and you will see if you need to make it bigger or not.

This is a paddle drill bit. So I lined up the edge of the fat part with the end of the sharpie markings, just inside, and then drilled through all three planks.

Once I started to assemble though I liked the look of two rather than three shelves. You would not have been able to see anything with three shelves. So remember to be flexible when you are building stuff. Often items it turns out better than you imagined. If it turns out worse, chalk it up to experience and move on. I now have an extra 45" long piece of barn wood with 4 holes in it. Don't you worry...it'll get used someday. My OOPS! always do.

Now style away to your hearts content!

Do you have any favorite things that you have made that might be classified as a fireman save?

Do tell!

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!