Improved Kitchen Shelving

I've been frustrated at the waste of space in a couple of my kitchen cupboards lately; With space in general in short supply i decided to do something about it by adding in another shelf. My orginal plan had partitioning and two extra shelves, but as i had an hour spare this evening thought I'd knock out this one shelf improvement.

This is my first Instructable so all comments and critiquing are welcome! I'd really appreciate your vote in the First Time Instructable Contest :-) Happy reading

Tools

Cross head screwdriver
General purpose saw
Tape measure
Spirit level
Pencil
Rubber
Workmate (optional)

Parts

Sheet of 6mm MDF
25mm countersunk general purpose screws
3 x fixing blocks

I originally made a quick sketch out of what i wanted the layout to be, but soon realised i was totally over thinking it, and would make the space very tight in some of the compartments. Instead i kept it simple and just decided to add one extra flat shelf and move the existing shelf up to the next set of pre drilled holes - 10cm higher. A more complex design would work better in a larger space.

The height of the new shelf is 16cm above the base of the cupboard. This allows sufficient room to access specific items. I found it quite amusing measuring Passata, Baked Beans and Peanut Butter containers!!

The original shelf is 28cm above the new shelf which leaves plenty of head room to double stack items such as chopped tomatoes, baked beans and bags of pulses (and whatever else is capable of double stacking!!).

Keeping the new shelf low down also means that i can re-jig the shelves above/add another shelf in future.

Remove all food items from the cupboard and give the whole cupboard a wipe down. Now remove the existing shelf along with the shelf supports.

You are now left with an empty cupboard.

Measure the height of your food items that you want stored. For me i wanted the new shelf at 16cm above the base of the cupboard. Don't forget to take into account the height of the fixing block when meauring and marking - mine were 1.5cm so needed to mark out the cupboard at 14.5cm. I marked out the rear and both sides of the cupboard.

Once the inside of the cupboard has been marked, use a spirit level to draw a straight line through the marks, on which you will attach your fixing block.

Offer the fixing block up to your nice stright lines. Use three fixing blocks. One for each side and one for the rear.

Screw the fixing blocks into the cupboard using the 25mm countersunk screws and cross head screwdriver. If yours need a pilot drilled, then use a pencil to mark exactly where you need it drilled.

You should be left with three sturdy and level fixing blocks inside the cupboard at the end of this step.

Rub out excess pencil marks.

I was able to cheat here by using my existing shelf as a template.

Place the existing shelf on your MDF sheet, ensure it is square and mark the outline with your pencil.

Once you are satisfied, begin to cut out the new shelf with your saw

A note.feom experience: ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE OR MORE! YOU CAN'T ADD THE MATERIAL BACK ONCE IT HAS BEEN CUT!

Fit both shelves into the cupboard and fill with all the food items that came out of it.

Bask in the neatness compared to the mess it was before and begin planning the next cupboard to be improved.....

Managed to get time to complete my other cupboard tonight. It's really improved how easy it is to access the items in the cupboard. One point to note in picture 3 is that i used one of my spice jars to mark out the level of the shelf. This removed the need for a tape measure and spirit level and really sped things up.

Thanks for reading.