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How To Build Canning Shelves

Shelves to fit your jars of home canned goodness without losing them. Each instruction is for one shelf. The above picture is two shelves with a middle brace.
Yield: 1 Upright shelf

Equipment

  • Tape Measure
  • Drill
  • Circular or miter saw
  • 4 1" Block of wood
  • Level
  • T Square or similar
  • Hammer

Materials

  • 23 2x4x8
  • A LOT 2" Screws we used decking screws

Instructions

  • Cut 24 48" pieces for shelves
  • Cut 18 12" pieces for braces
  • To make your end pieces, lay out 2 2x4x8's and attach 1 12" brace to the top and 1 12" brace to the bottom. Place the brace between the 2x4 so that your finished width is 15". Make sure your corners are square and level before you screw it together.
    Do this twice
  • Next attach 3 2x4x48" pieces to the bottom of your shelf. Use a 1" block in each space to ensure that your shelves are spaced evenly. Once the bottom row of shelves are done, you can stand up the unit so you are not on the ground.
  • Now you are going to attach the next brace 12" above your previous shelf. Double check that a quart jar will fit between your shelves. I can fit my half gallon jars as well but it's better to measure and adjust now than to have an entire shelfing unit that is wrong.
  • Keep going until you reach the top. The top shelf to the top brace is not 12", this is normal. I usually put extra jars or half gallon jars up on top.

Notes

We love these shelves and Jared was able to build these quickly and with relative ease. 
Always double check your measurements. We wanted 4ft shelves but if you don't have that much room, change the width. 
We used 2" decking screws but feel free to use whatever. As long as it's long enough to go through the shelf and the brace, you're good to go. Just don't use nails
If you are in an area prone to earthquakes or have a dog like Blu, figure out a way to attach these to the wall. We used spare 2x4 chunks and attached them to the rafters. 
On the note of earthquakes or a dog like Blu, figure out a way to keep your jars from falling off the front or back. We used furring strips to help keep jars from crashing to the ground when Blu decides to go running through the basement.