Pottery Barn Inspired Wall Organizer

Build your own Pottery-Barn-Inspired wall organizer with these free and easy plans.

Good morning my lovelies,

If you follow me on Instagram, then you would have had a sneak-peek at today’s AWESOME build – a Pottery Barn inspired wall organizer with free plans from the amazing Jen Woodhouse!

Yup, I only work with the best (to give you the best!)

I sent Jen a photo of a wall organizer I’d seen at the Pottery Barn outlet a few months ago.  She was able to take my image and create an even better wall organizer that not only has an open cupboard behind the chalkboard, but is also perfectly sized to fit wire baskets that you can pick up at the dollar store.

Click over for the full building plans and measurements for Jen’s DIY wall organizer, but follow along here as I show you how to make it.

Pottery Barn inspired wall organizer

Once you have all of your wood cut to size, it’s time to start assembly.  Begin by drilling pocket hole screws in the bottom board.

Use wood glue and clamp your side boards to the base – checking for square – and then drill in your pocket hole screws.

Line up your centre divider per Jen’s measurements, apply wood glue to the bottom and then nail in place with finishing nails.  The easiest way to make sure your nails hit the centre of the board every time is by lining up your speed square with the centre of the board being nailed into, and then drawing a line downwards.

Using a spacer created from piece of scrap wood cut to 6″, insert your first shelf, check for square and glue and nail in place.  Repeat for the second shelf.

Add the top board to your wall organizer allowing for a 1″ overhang on either side and glue and nail into place.

Cut down your ¼” backing and nail it into place.

To attach the coat hook section to your wall organizer, you’ll need to drill a few more pocket holes in the back of the board.  Line it up so it’s flush with the plywood backing and glue and screw into place with your pocket hole screws.

Drill a hole into the board that will be your chalkboard.  I found the middle and then cut in about an inch from the edge.  I used a 1″ spade bit for the cupboard door handle.

Attaching the cupboard door to the wall organizer was a bit tricky, but only because I haven’t used a chisel to carve out a mortise before.  Jen’s plans offer you the alternative of shaving down the cupboard door so you don’t have to do this step, but I wanted to give it a whirl.

I marked where I wanted the hinges to go on the wall organizer first.  I traced the hinges themselves and then used my chisel to cut a groove into the wood along those pencil lines.  From there I carefully chiseled out about 1/8″ – or the depth of one side of the hinge.

It’s not pretty, but it worked!  Repeat with the second hinge on the DIY wall organizer frame and then transfer those same placements onto the side of your cupboard door.  Again, perforate an edge with the chisel tip along the pencil line and then carefully scrape out the wood until your hinge is flush with the surface of the cupboard door.

Once you’ve installed the hinges (after staining/painting etc) it should look something like this (but hopefully better):

My local home improvement store didn’t carry the ¾” square dowels per the DIY wall organizer plans, so I ripped my own from some scrap wood on the table saw.

Jen’s plans give you angles for cutting your brackets, and were almost perfect (I was out 1° – but that was my error, not hers).

I glued my bracket pieces together, but then reinforced them with 1″ finishing nails (I used a nail gun).

Sand everything buttery-smooth and then glue and nail into place on your wall organizer.

I used some wood filler to clean up the nail holes and hide any tiny gaps then sanded the entire DIY wall organizer smooth with 120 grit and then 220 grit sandpaper.

Finish with stain, paint or sealer on the body of your organizer and at least 4 coats of chalkboard paint on your cupboard door.

Wanna see how beautiful she is?

I picked up these cute wire baskets at my local dollar store – they measure 8″ x 6″ x 3″ high and are perfect for corralling the mail and portable chargers.

If you keep this by the front door, you can jot notes to the fan-damily on the chalkboard,

and keep your running-out-the-door-necessities inside

Keep your purse and coat handy, or hang the kids backpacks ready for the next school day.

I’ve staged my Pottery Barn inspired wall organizer as a command centre/mail centre, but the real reason I wanted to build one was for pet storage:

I wanted a place to keep her collars and leashes, brushes and comb, and ridiculous amount of poop bags.

(My dog does not have any sort of bowel issues – it was that I had poop bags stored all over the place and didn’t realize how many I’d accumulated (face-palm).)  Now that I have a pet organizer, I can keep everything in one spot, ready to go out the door.

Inside the cupboard I have her doggie shampoo and a jar of cookies, and on the outside a grocery list of pet items we need next time we’re at the pet store.

I should go back to the dollar store and pick up another wire basket so I can keep her tennis balls on the pet organizer as well.

I love the side brackets so much – they really make this piece don’t they?

Both of my girls have already asked if I would build another for each of them… I could see this in their bathroom keeping their items separate and still organized.

Click over and visit Jen for the awesome DIY wall organizer plans, and for more sneak peeks of projects to come – follow my Instagram feed!

Thank you Jen!

Have a great one!

 

 

 

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