Make shelving for your peg board

I’d been lusting after a pegboard for quite a while but it was one of those things that I couldn’t quite justify buying for myself. There was always something that I needed more and I simply never got around to it getting one. It was one of those ‘I want rather than need’ items.

I’m always saying there are things that I want but when it comes to my birthday or Christmas, I can never seem to think of what exactly I want. So lately, I’ve started to make little notes on my phone when I see things that I’d like, no matter how random they might be, as you can be sure that I’ll forget about them. Then when my mind goes blank, I’ll have a trail of things that I want – or at least once did!

A peg board made it onto the list and seeing as I didn’t actually need that much for Christmas, it was duly waved in front of my husband. Maybe not a terribly exciting purchase but it’s something for me and I have been known to get household bits because actually it makes me happy getting these pieces. They last much longer than makeup and clothing don’t they?!

So to my amazement he managed to get me a peg board and not only that, but the largest size he could find! Fearing that he might get it wrong by going smaller, he opted for bigger…very wise indeed 🙂

He bought me this large peg board from a company called Block.  Once we had moved and my desk was all set up with the board in place, I instantly wanted to set about making it my own. Unfortunately the peg boards and accessories aren’t cheap, so I wanted to come up with an inexpensive way of making it into what I wanted.

After looking through Pinterest and Google, I couldn’t find what I wanted, so I decided just to go ahead with what I thought I could achieve. That’s how I managed to create my own shelves for my peg board and this post will help my fellow peg board lovers to achieve the same.

Nb. If your board is attached the the wall, you will need to remove it to be able to attach the shelves.

I made four shelves in total, two long ones and two short ones. I used the following items to make my shelves which all together cost a total of £ 19.68, but if you wanted to make less than four it will cost a lot less.

  • 4 x tester paint pots in various colours – £1.55 each (I used Dulux matt emulsion 50ml pots)
  • 1 x length smooth planed timber – £7.50 (I used this from B&Q 19mm x 89mm x 1800mm)
  • 8 x 60mm screw hooks – £5.98 (you need 2 per shelf and I bought 2 packs from Amazon here as they are extremely hard to get hold of in DIY shops)

The first thing that you need to do is to hold up your piece of wood against your peg board and measure out your required length needed for your shelf. Once measured, cut it to your desired length.

Once you have your shelf/shelves cut to size, once again hold up against the peg board and mark the points where the screws will go in the holes. For my long shelves I went three holes in on each end, and for the short shelves I went two holes in on each end.

Once you have the holes measured out and marked, drill the holes out using a drill bit slightly smaller than the hook size (I used a 3.2mm drill bit, but this will depend on the hook size you use).

When the shelves are all cut and drilled to size, get your tester paint pots and paint each shelf/shelves. As you can see from the picture, I chose to go with four different colours. I love pastel colours as I think they complement each other well.  The following shades are what I opted for:

  • Blissful Blue
  • Sweet Pink
  • Lemon Tropics
  • Mint Macaroon

I ended up going with two coats on each shelf, just to make sure I got a nice even coverage on all sides.

When all shelf/shelves are dried, screw in your hooks leaving about a 1.5cm gap from the back of the hook to the shelf. This is so you can easily insert them into your peg board, if you screw them in any further than that, you will struggle hooking the shelves in.

Now you can arrange your shelf/shelves on your peg board, then when you are happy, get a pair of combination pliers or similar and tighten up the hooks from the back of the peg board.

Once you have tightened all hooks, you will need to get a few washers per hole for when you attach it to the wall. This will help to leave a slight gap between the peg board and the wall whilst keeping it nice and tight and secure.

Then stand back and marvel at how easy and cheap it is to customise your peg board to exactly how you want it.

This board will always be changing and I’m still fiddling with the arrangement of things on it now. The shelves are perfect for pen pots, small plants/succulents and candles. The pegs are great for hanging pictures, postcards (hanging off a bulldog clip), scissors, camera and equipment, draping lights, washi tape and even hairbands!

It’s even a little project in itself to style the board and things can always be mixed up to suit your mood.

I hope you liked this tutorial as I will be doing more interior posts that are easy to follow but can really transform your home. If you are anything like me, you will often scroll through Pinterest finding a lot of things that you would love to try and make yourself, but the reality of what you produce couldn’t be any further from the image on Pinterest! I’m going to show you that it can be done.

Nb. I have not been sponsored by any of the companies mentioned in this post. I have just added what I bought to help you achieve the same result.

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