Floor to Ceiling Pole Mounted Kitchen Shelving

OK, admit it! You've probably got some shelves in your kitchen that are completely covered in items of all shapes and sizes. Some of it piles up on the counter, some in the cabinet and some on the shelves. The kitchen is one of those places where clutter can quickly get out of control. Food container sizes haven't been standardized, so unless you've got thousands of dollars to invest in a set of uniform plastic containers you're going to end up needing a storage area that can accommodate items with various sizes.

Kitchen shelving is a great way to store what you need in an accessible way. But if the shelves do not adjust you're going to end up with a lot of wasted space. James King from South Carolina, built the set of shelves pictured in this article. His shelves are connected to a set of pipes attached at the floor and the ceiling. The shelves are made to to float up and down on the pipes so that they can be locked into position at any point on the pole.

James was inspired by my pole mounted bookshelf and wanted to build something that would accommodate his family's kitchen storage needs. Here's what James had to say about the project:

The shelves actually took the place of a very cheap Walmart brand baker's rack that constantly stayed cluttered with mail, junk, etc.

The idea my wife and I had was to get some nice looking baskets to be able to store things in them and out of sight. I came across your site after doing a Google search for "pole mounted shelves". I searched through the images and saw the shelves we liked.

I am very pleased with fittings and have come up with several more ideas where these fittings could be used. I am a very novice woodworker but the fittings made the assembly a piece of cake. Building, staining, and finishing the shelves were by far the most time consuming part. Good thing is, the stain matches my kitchen cabinets almost perfectly. Simplified Building definitely has my recommendation!

I'm just like James. I don't have very many skills when it comes to woodworking. Like many others, that set of skills was not passed on to me. However, building with Kee Klamp and pipe means that I'm not completely out of the ball game when it comes to building something myself. Like countless other customers, James used a Kee Klamp to enable him to build a solid structure with pipe -- a project that would have been much more intimidating if it was built solely out of wood.

So how did James do it? Let's take a look at his parts and his steps:

How to Build Pole Mounted Kitchen Shelving

James used a simple process to make the kitchen shelves.

The shelves are made from 2 sheets of 1/2" birch plywood that are glued together to make the shelves 1" thick. Iron on veneer edging was used around the edges for a solid wood look. The stain is a Red Mahogany from Zar with 3 coats of semi-gloss to give it a smooth finish.

He then bored out equidistant holes in the shelves so that they could "float" on the pipes. This is a part of the process that you need to get right. See my tips on drilling these holes correctly on my pole mounted bookshelf post.

After making the shelves, then all that remains is to attach them to the fittings.

I used galvanized pipe and painted it oil rubbed bronze as well as the fittings. These fittings work great and make these shelves rock solid.

James used 18 of the 61-6 Flanges: 14 to support the seven shelves and 4 to mount the pipe to the floor and the ceiling. The 61-6 flanges needed to be bored out in order that the pipe would pass through. The aluminum version of this fitting does not need to be bored out.

The flanges are attached to the shelves with screws. The hole in the shelf and the hole in the flange should line up exactly.

What remains from here is to load the shelves onto the poles and mount the poles to the floor and the ceiling. Keeping the poles plumb is a top priority. You don't need to attach the shelves to the poles until you're sure that the poles are installed correctly. Once the poles are in place, then you can raise the shelf to the desired height and tighten the set screw to clamp the fitting onto the pipe.

So what would this shelf cost? By the time you add up the fittings, pipe, wood and extra amenities you'd be in the $300 ball park. Not a bad price for a custom-made shelf that will be built to your specification.

If you've been inspired by this post, we hope you'll end up like James who has several other ideas for projects that he would like to build with Kee Klamp fittings. If you're looking for more project ideas, please be sure to check our our project gallery.