DIY An Industrial Style Shelf On A Budget With Cinder Blocks

While some interior trends come and go, industrial styles are more popular than ever, making it a great time to embrace this raw and rugged design direction. It's functional and laid-back, with a stripped-down look allowing enough DIY potential to satisfy any home décor enthusiast who likes to control the aesthetic down to the last detail. The design aesthetic is perfect for repurposing all kinds of old items, including the hard, neutral textures of cinder block. With little preparation, you can reuse spare cinder blocks to fashion all kinds of indoor and outdoor pieces, from surprisingly cool DIY patio furniture to a chic and functional shelf.

Instagrammer @roomdecorinspirationus delivers this fast, fastener-free shelf assembly, using stacks of cinder blocks and painted boards to create a fresh living room surface. Cinder blocks act as the side and center supports, while boards cut to length and finished with your desired paint or stain sit in the cinder block holes. After only a few minutes of simple assembly, you'll have a long-lasting accent table you can decorate with houseplants, books, and accessories to complete your setup.

Although the actual assembly couldn't be easier, you shouldn't skip the preparation steps to make the components look their best. Start with the cinder blocks. If you're recycling old building materials from demos and other free sources, you'll likely have to clear away old dirt or oil stains to keep your shelving unit bright and crisp. Pressure wash your blocks, or scrub them using a nylon brush with a light-duty concrete cleaner or soap and water before building your shelves. When washed and in good shape, the light gray cement forms will add a clean architectural quality to make your shelf pop and a neutral tone that can work with any color scheme. If needed, you can also paint your cinder blocks, as YouTube channel Shop Last. does for their DIY shelving. Match them with surrounding décor, or use a light gray to clean up the surface while retaining some of the concrete's natural color.

Clean cinder blocks are ready for use, but you may want a few extra materials that can make life easier. On the bottom, you can stick on a soft protector like these felt furniture pads. Adding padding will maintain an on-the-floor look while keeping the coarse cinder block from scratching your more delicate flooring. You can do the same for the shelves, using a cloth barrier to keep them scuff-free if you ever need to flip the boards.

You have two options when laying out your shelves in this DIY — putting wood within the hollow cinder block cores or laying them atop the blocks. A standard 8x8x16 cinder block will have two cavities that can comfortably fit 2x4 or 4x4 boards. Running them through the holes will leave a few inches of space between the boards, limiting how you can arrange accessories. You can fix this, though, by using stacks of books or decorative DIY trays as surfaces to span the gap. Otherwise, you may have to place flat boards on top of and between the blocks. It won't carry the same appeal as running boards through the holes, but the wide surface will give you more versatility with what you put on it.

After deciding on the layout, choose a unique wood finish. Choose a paint that matches your room, or use a stain to create a bold contrast and bring out the wood's natural textures. YouTuber Natazsa picked a dark stain with a matte finish to make both the wood shelving and the lighter cement frame stand out. Finish by assembling the shelf, making sure to play around with how you place your cinder blocks. You have flexibility to keep the blocks on the edges or let the shelf extend past the supports so they can hold cascading plants and other décor to liven up your industrial-styled space.