DIY Suitcase Wall Shelves

Shelves are the perfect way to display little knick knacks and dimension to your walls! These DIY suitcase wall shelves are simple yet the added character of the handles and metal brackets make them perfect for a child’s room or office! Build some suitcase wall shelves and dress up a wall in your home!

The shelf design is based on some suitcase wall shelves I saw on the PB Teen website! Their version of this is super cute for holding a girl’s jewelry, and you can easily add the hooks to make this set work for jewelry…but since my son doesn’t have jewelry to display…Lol…I used the idea and made small modifications in size so it can be cut out of one 1×4 board!!

I love how wall shelves can seriously transform a space so quickly and easily and that they add space for storing stuff that otherwise would be stuffed in a drawer somewhere! My son of course didn’t want to keep his ‘cool treasures’ stuck in a drawer, he wanted them displayed! Luckily these DIY wall shelves allowed him to do just that and in a really cute way that made not only him happy but momma as well!😊

Need other great DIY ideas for your kid’s rooms? Check out this Modular Storage System, this Oversized Chalkboard, or this set of wall baskets and so much more you can find with a quick search of the site!

Gathering Supplies to Build the DIY Suitcase Wall Shelves

It took me only a few minutes in the garage to cut and staple it together, paint it, add the finishing touches and hang it on the wall!! Perfect for my summer projects since my littles don’t really want to give me much time to build this summer!

If you want to build both sizes of suitcase wall shelves, you will need two 1x4s but if you are only wanting to build one of them, you will only need one 1×4 board!

Material List for the DIY Wall Shelves:

NOTE: Amazon links below are affiliate links! Affiliate links are links that pay me a small commission (at no extra cost to you) should you make a purchase after clicking a link! It’s a real win-win for us both, you get something you need from Amazon, and I make a wee bit of money to keep the plans coming for free…but we are friends either way!😉

*Medium and Small wall shelves are the same as far as materials are concerned…if you want to build both just double the materials!

• 1 – 1x4x8
• wood glue
• saw
• brad nailer or you can use finishing nails and a hammer
• door or drawer pull
• 4 metal angle brackets (from the roofing section)
• small screws for the brackets and drawer pull (the ones that come with the pull are too long)
• hanging hardware

Cut List for the DIY Wall Shelves:

Medium Suitcase Wall Shelf

• 2 – 1×4 @ 21″
• 2 – 1×4 @ 14″
• 1 – 1×4 @ 12.5″
• 1- 1×4 @ 13″

Small Suitcase Wall Shelf

• 2 – 1×4 @ 18″
• 3 – 1×4 @ 10.5

Building the DIY Suitcase Wall Shelves

To get started with the medium size suitcase wall shelf, I cut the outside ‘box’ of the shelf first and decided to cut the other two boards as I went to make sure I didn’t cut them too short in the beginning…if you want to make this out of one board there is NO room for error!! Haha!! I sanded the boards before attaching them together…I knew it would be really hard to get in the tight spaces once it was all together!!

Medium Suitcase Wall Shelf

Next, I used wood glue and then stapled the ‘box’ together to make the frame of the shelf!

I then cut the vertical board (sanded it) and placed it about inches from the left side…stapling from the outside down into the board with some wood glue as well!

Last you cut your final horizontal board (sand it before attaching) to fit in between the vertical board and the right side of the ‘box’!

Viola!!! Yep, it was THAT easy I tell you!!! Pick your favorite paint or stain color…paint/stain it…pick a drawer pull you like, or you can order Suitcase Handles online that look a lot like PBTeen’s version…I just am really impatient and liked the pulls I found enough to use them!! Here are the ones I used!

I just used my drill to screw them in and used these little corner brackets for a little character and to tie the shelves into his under-bed boxes that I made a while back!!

Added some hanging hardware…DONE!!!

Small Suitcase Wall Shelf

The small shelf is just as easy…I cut all my boards in the beginning for this one, and then realized I needed to go more narrow on the shelf so I placed the short boards on the outside of the long boards and so I ended up having to cut down my middle board…did that make any sense? The next picture shows how I put the box together…but you can do it where the short boards fit inside the long boards and then all three will be cut the same length…I just didn’t have room!!

Same thing…sand first, wood glue, and staple!! Looks like I didn’t sand very well…Haha…I knew I was painting…I wasn’t real concerned!!

See how I placed the long boards inside the short ones! I then had to cut down my middle board by 1 1/2″ and then apparently forgot to take a picture!! So go ahead and attach that one now!! Lol!!

Whoop Whoop!! Paint or stain…add the hanging hardware…and hang on the wall baby!!!

I love simple easy projects that I can complete in very little time but that adds just the right touch to a space and that is exactly what these Suitcase Wall Shelves have done!!

Thanks for reading!! Have a great Thursday!!!

Remember, whatever you BUILD or CRAFT, I just hope you LOVE every minute of it!!

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