I want to build a shelf

triedit

inimitable
I want something like a bathroom etagere only it has to fit over my compact dryer. I went and measured bathroom ones and they are just a couple inches too narrow and short.

I have a hammer and a screw driver. No saw. Does Home Depot et al cut wood for you? Anybody got any advice?
 
May 28, 2007
3,866
67
48
Honour our Fallen
seriously home depot is da bomb. yes they cut wood and rent tools and will show you how to do it.
Hell 90% of home renovators are getting their know how there.
Thats why they keep leaving for something they forgot *Wink*
 

Niflmir

A modern nomad
Dec 18, 2006
3,460
58
48
Leiden, the Netherlands
I want something like a bathroom etagere only it has to fit over my compact dryer. I went and measured bathroom ones and they are just a couple inches too narrow and short.

I have a hammer and a screw driver. No saw. Does Home Depot et al cut wood for you? Anybody got any advice?

I've got nothing. My father managed to jury-rig something decent out of planks and milk crates. Once filled the tackiness of the milkcartons is suppressed. It looks quite nice in his living room with his book collection on the lower shelves and some plants on top.

With children, I imagine you want something a little bit homier than that. Do the shelves have to be solid? You could do a weaved shelf if you are going to be storing light things or soft things.
 

Unforgiven

Force majeure
May 28, 2007
6,770
137
63
I want something like a bathroom etagere only it has to fit over my compact dryer. I went and measured bathroom ones and they are just a couple inches too narrow and short.

I have a hammer and a screw driver. No saw. Does Home Depot et al cut wood for you? Anybody got any advice?

Call your friend who has tools and carpentry skills.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
10,168
536
113
Regina, SK
Call your friend who has tools and carpentry skills.
That's probably the best advice. An etagere isn't what you want, unless I don't know what the word means; everything I've ever seen with that label on it is a decorative little free-standing shelf unit, and wouldn't fit over any dryer, compact or otherwise. It stands on the floor, often in a corner. I'd guess what you really want is a two or three shelf unit fastened to the wall above the dryer. They're easy to build from plywood or MDF, but without a saw you're pretty much out of luck. Places like Home Depot and Rona will cut wood to size for you, for a price, but they won't do what you really need to make a sturdy shelf, unless you're far better at sweet-talking their staff than I am. They'll rip a sheet of plywood into shelf-width strips for you, but they won't cut the dadoes into the vertical parts to slot the shelves into.

Look around a bit more, you can almost certainly find a prefabricated shelving unit made of melamine-coated MDF that you'll have to assemble and mount on the wall yourself (but you'll need a drill too). Ikea makes many such kits, so do lots of other firms. But if you really don't know what you're doing and don't have the tools to do the job, and don't want to buy them and learn how to use them, the best advice is to find somebody who does.
 

triedit

inimitable
*sigh* men. Sheesh. THIS is a bathroom etagere. (although you can get those frilly little racks under that title as well) I don't want one this fancy--basically a three shelf bookshelf on stilts is what I want

Can't fasten to the wall because the walls are concrete (apartment living and that wall happens to be the one encasing the emergency staircase)

What Im thinking though is that I could get one of those cheap white put it together bookshelves and build the stand onto it...
 

DaSleeper

Trolling Hypocrites
May 27, 2007
33,676
1,665
113
Northern Ontario,
Try IKEA just north of the 401 between Bayview and Leslie, my daughter gets all her stuff there and if you get the size you want..........all you need is a screwdriver selection and a few wrenches for assembly.........:smile:
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
10,168
536
113
Regina, SK
*sigh* men. Sheesh.
What's that about? You give incomplete information and ask for advice, an experienced home handyman (me) tries to come to your assistance and fill in the gaps with some educated guesswork, then you reveal that you're in an apartment and there's a concrete wall behind the dryer that you can't fasten things to (actually you can, and you can also invisibly repair it when you leave so the landlord will never know, if you know how), and you respond as if I were being tiresome and making it overly complicated. *sigh* women. Sheesh. This is not as simple a problem as you thought.

But 'cause I'm such a nice guy, I'll tell you a few other things. First, you're unlikely to find something that'll fit perfectly over your dryer, that's not what those units are designed for. And second, be sure that the braces on the legs, like what you see in that image you posted, don't interfere with the dryer's venting or power cord. Odds are the dryer's vent pipe will be on the back or side of the unit just about where those bottom braces are. Take a measured drawing of the dryer with you on your shopping trip, with those things marked on it. And take a tape measure too, so you can check measurements on whatever you find. And third, also note where the dryer plugs into the wall and where the vent pipe exits your apartment, to be sure the shelving unit won't interfere with access to those either.
 
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