DIY White Oak Open Shelving: Without Breaking The Bank!

DIY White Oak Open Shelving: learn how to add white oak open shelving to your kitchen (without breaking the bank) by following this super simple tutorial!

It probably comes as no surprise that I have been crushing on white oak open shelving for quite some time, some of you may also know that premade white oak floating shelves can be insanely expensive… So expensive that replacing all of my cabinet doors will cost less! If you aren’t familiar with the price then take this, for example, one 30″ x10″x 2″ shelf with brackets was going to cost me nearly $400.00….. FOR ONE… and I needed four! Insert the crying face emoji… Plus add in the fact that your girl is cheap and ain’t no way I’m spending that much on ONE shelf!

 

So just like I’ve always done with any home update that comes back insanely expensive I began searching for ways we could DIY this project to save a boatload of money and let me tell you figuring this out wasn’t easy but I am going to save you a ton of time and research by letting you in on how we were able to DIY this project and maybe like us, you can save $1400.00 too! Because who doesn’t love saving money am I right?

But before we dig in, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, remember what the kitchen looked like when we finished the DIY white subway tile backsplash, you can read all about that here.

We are in love with the way the tile turned out and wanted to add in natural wood tones to warm up that side of the kitchen so we opted for white oak open shelving vs upper cabinets, this was always our plan and if it would have been left completely up to me I would have skipped the upper cabinets entirely because our kitchen has never felt more open than it did with no uppers… but since this is also Waynes home and not just mine, we agreed to only add uppers to the sink side and I’m sure I will be grateful for the extra storage down the road.

Sourcing White Oak Shelving

When I began trying to source the white oak lumber needed to create the shelves and wrap the bottom of the range hood I was shocked that every single store I called said they didn’t carry white oak in that width. I contacted every lumber yard and specialty hardwood shop in the metro area and even some hours away, each time it was the same song ” we don’t carry it that wide”.

So after a ton of frustration, I contacted a local sawmill and although they had it in stock, to my disappointment it would take roughly 3 months to dry! In hindsight, I  could’ve waited that long but I sure didn’t want to!

On my last attempt to hunt down this mystical wood, I contacted Phoneix Hardwoods here in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the man I spoke with over the phone said they showed to have 600 feet in stock but that the boards technically only have to be 6″ wide to make grade.

This basically means that it is bought as random width lumber and a 2″x10″ board would only have to be 6″ wide to be considered 10″. He also made it very clear on the phone that if a board that was wide enough was located at the bottom of the stack he would not be digging it out for me.

This conversation left me feeling even more confused than before and I was so frustrated that I threw everything down for a few weeks and decided to come back to it.

Once I had time to get my barrings and I was finally ready to work on it again I decided that Wayne and I just needed to go check out this lumber in person so we could dig through it and measure it ourselves if need be. Those of you that know me in real life know just how stubborn I can be at times and at least this way we would know for sure that we did all that we could to find it locally.

So one Friday we loaded up and headed to the lumber yard, the men on the sales floor were definitely not the nicest and we were told where to go and look for the white oak in the warehouse. Once we made our way to the spot we met the gentleman that worked inside the warehouse pulling orders for customers and he was the nicest man I’ve probably ever worked with!

He was so kind and helped us dig through all of the boards until we found two that were perfect for our shelves and not only that but he also helped us pick out a board to clad the bottom of our range hood in the same gorgeous white oak!

The boards came in at $6-7 a board foot (I can’t remember exactly) but we paid $252.00 total and let me tell you when we pulled out of there I was happier than I have been in months and if you ask me, now that it is up I think this white oak totally makes the kitchen. 

 

Slab vs Box

For our shelves, we went the slab route, where the shelf is solid all the way through. Basically, just a board attached to the wall vs boxed shelves like the floating shelves in our office that are hollow on the inside.

Doing it this way saved us a lot of work building out the shelves but one con of doing slab shelves is you are at the mercy of the board thickness. So be sure to research both options and see what will work best for you, this could also be dependant on how wide the white oak boards are as well.

 

Prepping The Wall For DIY Open Shelving

There are several different ways to attach your white oak shelves to the wall and each way has a different install point so look into the options below and decide which one works best for you.

Brackets mounted to the studs: This option can be done one of two ways. One, install the brackets onto the studs before the drywall is hung,  then you simply drywall around the brackets or you can install the brackets after the drywall. Making a cut into the drywall to hide the brackets (basically making the flat part of the bracket that attaches to the stud hidden), if you will be adding a tile backsplash behind your shelves you will want to make sure you install the brackets first so the bracket will be behind the tile vs trying to cut into the freshly laid tile to install them.

Install After Tile Is Laid: If you happen to come into the job later or if you just downright forgot to install the brackets you can always cut into the tile. Before you do just know that this can be tricky and time-consuming so be sure you’re aware of what you’re getting yourself into.

Structural Screws: This is the option we went with and when you think about it I’m not sure why more people don’t go with this option, I mean most kitchen cabinets are held up by a few small screws and we stuff them full of dishes without them falling off the wall,  so why can’t we do the same with shelves?! Once I had time to actually think about it we decided to go with this option vs the bracket + dowel option.

 

Before we began I had a pretty good idea of the size shelves I wanted but we went ahead and measured everything out and decided on a final measurement for the shelves on each side of the range hood.

(Secret… I kind of wish I had made them longer on the side where our peninsula is. At the time I wasn’t sure how it would look but once the shelves were installed I knew I should have extended them on that side. We can always buy a bigger board and add longer shelves on that side pretty easily so I’m not concerned about it at the moment.)

Once we had the final width that we wanted, we cut the boards so that we could mark the tile + board without trying to hold the entire 8 ft board up to the tile.

 

We used a stud finder to find and mark the studs, then placed the shelf against the wall and made small pencil marks on the shelf where the stud would be. Then in order to keep the tile from splitting or chipping during the drilling process, we laid painters tape down exactly where we wanted the shelves to go. We then drilled small pilot holes with a drill bit made to go through the tile like these.

 

Cutting Tile

In order to cut the tile we purchased this tile cutting hole saw, they have one that has a piece in the middle that drills a pilot hole which will keep the drill steady while you’re cutting but unfortunately it is a specialty tile saw and we weren’t able to find one locally. But before you grab a regular one like we did I have to warn you, tile is hard to cut through and this saw will try to walk all over the place when you’re cutting so it takes some strength to keep it in place.

Here are some tile hole saws with the pilot bit that won’t walk around on your so much.

 

1 in. Diamond Plus Hole Saw W/ Arbor

Retractable Starter Bit with Large Arbor For Diamond Plus Hole Saws

You will also need these structural screws.

Not sure but they also show this as a frequently bought together product, it has teeth and the one we used did not so this may be another option in place of number 1.

 

If you simply purchase the hole saw without the retractable pilot tool then you will want to make a pilot hole first, this will help to keep the saw somewhat steady as you’re cutting.

Start with the pilot hole you drilled centered inside the hole saw and start the drill. Remember to apply lots of pressure to keep it steady.

 

If you purchase both the hole saw and retractable pilot hole bit products from above then follow the instructions on how to use the retractable pilot bit. 

 

 

 

 

Drill Pocket Holes

We then used our Kreg Jig Pocket Hole System and clamp to make two pocket holes to place the structural screws through the wood being sure to line them up on the pencil mark you made earlier noting where the stud is. This will ensure that the screw ends up going through the hole you just cut in the tile.

One thing we did run into once the pocket holes were drilled was the fact that the pocket holes were not deep enough to hold the large head of the structural screws so we had to bore them out a little with the drill bit to make the hole a smidge deeper. Once we did this the screw heads fit in perfectly.

 

 

Here is a helpful video that we used to guide us through the entire process.  We went with these screws and this tile hole saw if you use the same tile hole saw just know that this thing will try to walk all over the place while you are cutting the tile and it takes quite a bit of pressure to keep it steady.

 

If you want to avoid that, you can purchase a 1″ tile hole saw with the pilot hole bit like this one here.

FYI we opened up our walls on this side of the kitchen so we knew exactly where our electrical wires were. If you are not sure where the electrical wiring is located then I do not recommend using these screws to mount the shelves.

Due to the long length, a wire could easily be hit. But if like us you know where your wiring runs then this is a great option. There are multiple ways of completing this project that all lead to the same end result and this information can be helpful no matter which option you end up choosing for your home. 

Once both holes were cut and pocket holes were made it was time to sand this bad boy! We loved how ours looked already so we just spent a couple of mins going over it lightly with the sander to remove any major imperfections like the scuffed area where the pocket holes were drilled and used it to remove any paint or stickers from the lumber yard. When your board looks good to you, you’re ready to hang.

 

 

This takes two people. One to hold the board perfectly straight and one to drill the screws in. In order to make sure the board was straight we used our laser level and lined up the pocket holes with the holes in the tile. The person holding the board needs to keep it as still as they possibly can once everything is lined up then the person with the drill can set the screws.

Tada!! Now its time to move on and repeat the same steps for the next shelf. 

 

As you hang each shelf its a good idea to check and make sure everything is level.

 

As you can see there are small holes where the pocket screws were installed, to fix this the Kreg Jig Pocket Hole System has 3/8″ wood pocket hole plugs that you can slide in. These are made to be glued in, sanded flush with the wood, the edges filled with wood filler then painted or stained to match but we aren’t staining ours so I am skipping them for now and once we begin prepping our cabinets for paint I will do all of the hole filling at one time. Once our plates and decor are up there they are totally invisible.

 

Here is what the shelves looked like when we finished.

And here they are styled! I seriously couldn’t be anymore in love with them!

 

 

Although this shelf project started out being a huge headache in the beginning with all of the wood sourcing drama, in the end, it all came together and it was totally worth it because I couldn’t be happier with our gorgeous Diy white oak open shelving!

If you are currently searching for white oak lumber in your area I hope this article is helpful, if you are local to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma be sure to check out Phoneix Hardwood & Plywood.

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Next up we will be going through the process of building the upper cabinets for the other side of the kitchen and replacing the cabinet doors throughout the kitchen. Currently, we are torn on what size cabinets we will use over the pantry and fridge since we intend to build-in the refrigerator so that it looks more custom but I plan to take you guys through the process as we try to figure things out so stay tuned for that.