Building Bookshelves out of Plumbing Pipe
I had some space in the office I wanted to use up, so I thought I’d take a crack at building some shelves out of 1×12 pine boards and some pipe. Here’s the original space, with my assistant Ozzy Osbourne in the foreground….
I purchased everything at Home Depot for about $150. I used 1/2″ black pipe for everything. It took me three trips to the store before I finally got it right : )
Here’s what I ended up using for the project you see in these photos.
Wall Flanges: 4
Elbows: 8
T’s: 6
12 inch long pipe: 4
8 inch long pipe: 2
6 inch long pipe: 8
10 inch long pipe: 2
1 x 12 inch boards: as long as you want them.
Next I cut the boards 3 feet each and drilled 7/8 inch holes in the two front corners of the shelf.
I then proceeded to stain the boards and I painted the pipe with flat black spray paint.
Once everything was dry, it was just a matter of putting it all together. Here is the finished space with the shelves attached to the wall with the flanges.
Here is the top part and the bottom:

Screwed into the wall with dry wall screws.