DIY Industrial Bookshelf | Storage Tower | TheNavagePatch.com

West Elm Inspired DIY Industrial Bookshelf (with Free Plans!)

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  1. Files are heavy, and opening an unsupported drawer in a filing cabinet can sometimes cause it to tip over. This usually results in profanity from the tipper and guffaws from any onlookers.
  2. We wanted to be able to roll the whole file drawer out of the storage tower. It’s sometimes easier to file a lot of paperwork if you can bring the file drawer to you instead of you having to get up and go to it. I tend to have a lot of super-important and totally top-secret paperwork on my desk – often several months’ worth.

To keep the file drawer straight and centered when pulling it out and pushing it in, I designed it to work with these ball transfer bearings.

The sides of the file drawer glide along the transfer bearings, and it stays centered and straight, just like me after yoga class.

LOL, totally kidding. I’d die after 90 seconds of yoga.

We could have used regular drawer slides along with the casters, but they wouldn’t allow the drawer to be removed as easily.

I started out by drilling the necessary holes for the steel rod and by drilling the few pocket holes needed for this build.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

You can build these industrial bookshelves without pocket holes, but you’ll have to shoot some brad nails through the front face of the file drawer. I know earlier I said that I don’t mind the way they look, but for this project, I wanted to keep the front faces clean (the file drawer and the pull-down door) and keep the nail holes on the sides.

I first attached the back to the sides.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf
building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf
building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

Next I attached the bottom piece. I used 3/4 inch plywood for the base for extra stability. I had it lying around as scrap, so it didn’t cost me any extra money. 1/2 inch plywood would also work fine, but you just need to be careful when screwing in the casters that the screws don’t penetrate through the wood.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

I attached the front face solely with pocket screws – no glue – just in case I messed something up and needed to move it up or down. I clamped it in place and then drove in the pocket screws.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf
building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

Almost built – just needs wheels!

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

I used a speed square to keep the wheels perfectly aligned.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

All done, except for the steel rods and the handle. They come later, after sanding, staining and sealing.

building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

Before sanding the mango plywood, I first drilled screw holes in the angle iron. I marked one iron according to the measurements given on page 3.

marking angle iron to drill
marking angle iron to drill

After drilling one, I used it as a template for the other 7 pieces. I laid the drilled piece on top and drilled down into the bottom piece.

drilling through angle iron - building a diy storage tower / industrial bookshelf

When all the iron was drilled, I cleaned them with mineral spirits, took them outside and painted them.

While the paint dried, I went back to the basement to start sanding the plywood. Hey, it’s not mango, but it’s the best I got, alright?

sanding plywood

I used a detail sander for the insides of the boxes and the top shelf of the upper piece. I’m not sure what happened with my squawking hen esteemed photographer, but all of my sanding pictures are blurry.

I really don’t know how that’s possible with today’s smartphones, but my babes managed to figure it out! Then again, she also figured out how to kill a wisteria, so…

Oh crap, she heard me.

RUN!

Phew, lost her.

Okay where was I? Oh yeah. Sanding. I used a random orbit sander on the rest – much faster than the detail sander, but if the detail sander is all you have, it’ll do the trick.

After sanding and wiping away all the dust, I got ready to stain. This was going to be a lot of staining, so I put on my organic solvent respirator – a must for any prolonged exposure to stain or poly.

I chose Minwax Golden Oak for this project. On birch plywood, it looks awesome with the Rustoleum soft flat iron spray paint I used on the angle iron.

man holding a can of stain and wearing a respirator
Man poses for selfie with can of stain while wearing a creepy respirator.

Then there’s this one…

Creepy man poses for selfie with can of stain while wearing a respirator.

Yeesh, somebody bring the squawking hen back in! At least she’d tell him how dorky he looks!

I don’t have any pictures of the staining, since I was all gloved up and swimming in solvents, but you know how it goes.

After two days, I gave everything a couple of coats of wipe-on poly. I wasn’t looking to build up a shiny finish – I just wanted to seal the wood a little.

A couple of days after the last coat of poly, we carried all the components into the craft room for final assembly.

We laid the 3 main pieces on the floor and attached the first angle iron to the bottom piece. You can see that I didn’t paint the screws before assembly. Later, Handan and I sprayed some flat soft iron into a cup and painted each screw with a brush.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

Three. Times.

Don’t be stupid like me – pre-paint your screws. You may have some small touch-ups here and there, but overall, it will be so much easier than painting 104 screws by hand.

Three. Times.

While you’re at it, make sure to spray the hinges, too.

We used spacers to get the correct distance between the bottom and middle components. For the top piece, we aligned it with the top of the angle iron.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

Then we attached an angle iron to the other side. You may notice some pocket holes in there. Before I could realize it was a mistake and not needed (and an eyesore), i had already pre-drilled all of the tops and bottoms with pocket holes. Instead of scrapping everything and spending more money, I kept the pieces for the bottoms and middles, as those pocket holes are not seen. I did have to buy more wood to rebuild the tops, though. No matter how you looked at it, the tops looked terrible with pocket holes.

As usual, my lessons are all learned through lost time and wasted money! But hey, I’m your crash test dummy (strong emphasis on dummy), so you guys can do it right the first time!

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

We rotated the storage tower and attached the next angle iron.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

Screw, screw, screw. It’s all I do!

o_0

Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

After attaching the final angle iron, we flipped the storage tower on its back so I could install the ball transfer bearings.

I measured up 6 inches from the bottom and in 2 inches from the front for the first bearing. The other bearings, I attached at about 8 inches and 13 inches in and 6 inches up from the bottom. I repeated this on the other side of the box.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

To protect our laminate floor, we trimmed some stick-on furniture pads and stuck them along the bottom edge, so we could slide our DIY storage towers around the room without worry.

We put one storage tower in its place, and we prepared to install its cabinet door.

assembling diy industrial bookshelf / storage tower

Installing the door took both of us, so I don’t have any pictures, but it’s pretty straightforward.

West Elm Inspired DIY Industrial Bookshelf / Storage Tower | TheNavagePatch.com

Once the hinges, magnetic catch and knob were installed (and after we painted all those screws and hinges!), we rolled the file drawer into its place and our DIY industrial bookshelves / storage towers were finished and ready to be filled!

West Elm Inspired DIY Industrial Bookshelf / Storage Tower | TheNavagePatch.com
West Elm Inspired DIY Industrial Bookshelf / Storage Tower | TheNavagePatch.com

What do you think about our West Elm inspired DIY storage towers? Let us know in the comments!

If you’re following along with the craft room makeover, here’s how we stand:

Craft Room Makeover Checklist

Click here to see more craft room makeover posts as we continue to cross items off our checklist!

Click on ‘Next’ to see the Supplies List, Cut Sheet and Step-by-Step Plans.

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22 Comments

    1. Thank you Laurie! You know, I have those plugs. They’re great when painting the project, but they still stick out when staining. Better than nothing though, I guess! 🙂

  1. I love those. They’re not to big that they take up a lot of room but still has a lot of storage. And I like your price tag much better. Y’all make a great team. 🙂

  2. OMGoodness I love these towers and I also love your detailed instructions while providing humor into your blog!!! I always look forward to your tutorials, thanks!

  3. My favorite build by you yet!! I think it looks better than the West Elm piece! Ooooo ….how about some pottery barn inspired accent pieces?

    And I’m hoping you’ve got a few Halloween pieces up your sleeve for the Fall 🙂

    1. Thank you, Tracey! We’re done some Pottery Barn inspired posts in the past. Search for them on our site. Also – Halloween is our jam, so get ready for it! (and also check out our Halloween posts from previous years!) 🙂

  4. Amazing! I love the way these turned out, and your detailed directions are unbelievable. Though this is way beyond my skill set, I love reading the plans (and your comments, of course). Thanks for a wonderful and entertaining blog.

  5. Love these! Attractive, sturdy, functional and actually fit in a normal sized room! Looking forward to the Holiday posts. Well done and many thanks.

  6. Ya’ll are an amazing team. You can build with mango wood when you retire to the Isle of Snoot – for now, keep knocking out the incredible plywood projects. Great post.

  7. Actually, I like your version of the towers much better than West Elm. To me, if I were building, yours is much more functional. Yay to Handan for coming up with the great design. I sure wish my hubby was still able to do the woodworking he was so good (and creative) at doing. I’d have him on a couple of these in a heartbeat!