• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Start Here
  • Shop Favorites
  • About
    • Welcome To My Repurposed Life Home of Repurposed Furniture
    • More About Gail
    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Information
  • Gallery
    • Repurposed Furniture
  • Repurposed Items
    • Building Supplies
    • Miscellaneous Household Items
    • Picture Frame/Chalk Board
  • DIY
    • Home Reno
    • outdoor living
    • Painting
    • Shop Talk
    • Tips for Around the House
    • Build It
      • Furniture
      • Home Decor
      • Storage
    • Crafts
      • Dollar Store
      • Easy
      • Holidays Seasonal
  • Furniture
    • Chair
    • Desk
    • Dresser/Chest
    • Headboard | Bed Parts | Cribs
    • Kids Furniture
    • Table
    • Kids Furniture
My Repurposed Life® Rescue Re-imagine Repeat
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Start Here
  • Project Index
  • Furniture
  • Subscribe
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Holidays Seasonal » House Cubby Wall Shelf

    House Cubby Wall Shelf

    Published by Gail | Published December 3, 2019 | Updated May 14, 2021
    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Pin
    Share
    Tweet
    House Shaped Cubby Shelf for Christmas or everyday collectibles. With 25+ cubbies, easily use this as an advent calendar. Two different tutorials to follow to customize this to your liking. #MyRepurposedLife #Christmas #decor #wallshelf #cubby #advent via @repurposedlife

    My friend Cristina shared her House Advent Calendar for our November Woodworker’s challenge. I loved the way her house looked and I decided to make my own house cubby wall shelf.

    House Shaped Cubby Wall Shelf

    wooden house display shelf MyRepurposedLife I sort of followed Cristina’s plans for the cut list. However, I changed up a couple of things. I used ½” stock for the frame, and ¼” stock for the cubby boards of the house shelf.

     

    cubby shelf

     

    Design Cubby Shelf

    building a house cubby wall shelf

    You can see I printed out her plans and was following the color coded details. I worked a little differently than she did. My plan was to glue all the shelf cubbies, then frame them with the shape of the house. I used blocks of wood to try to keep each cubby square. That’s a good plan, but it’s not the best way to keep everything square.

    I laid out all the pieces and propped them up to make sure all was well.

     

    label all cubby shelf boards

    Because the plans are color coded, I labeled each piece with the color and the orientation. You can see this one is green and it installs horizontally.

    *this post contains affiliate links, read more here*

     

    Clamp & Glue Sections

    glue and clamp shelf cubby

    I chose several sections at a time to clamp and glue. I always use Gorilla Wood Glue. After a few sections were glued, then I started connecting them.

     

     

    painters tape is helpful with the clamps

    The weather turned cold, so I had to move into the house. My plan was to NOT glue to the frame until the end, but I got confused and ended up gluing a few of the cubby boards to the outside house frame.

    Painter’s tape was helpful to hold the joints together until the glue set up. It did take a couple of days because of waiting for that. Full disclosure: I made a mistake with one of the VERY first sections I put together. The color on the plans was brown, but I mistook it for dark violet. Therefore, near the end, I had to make some different arrangements.

     

    clamping gluing a house cubby wall shelf

    It got a little crazy with all the clamps! I used dabs of painter’s tape to keep track of the cubby holes so this could be used as a Advent Calendar in addition to a cubby wall shelf.

    Using Painter's Tape for Clamping

    painter's tape corner house cubby wall shelf

    Again, the painter’s tape was so great to hold the corners together before I glued the house frame.

     

     

    tape corners of wooden blocks

    I used 4x4’s to square the joints of the house cubby wall shelf. Had I not taped the corners of the blocks, they would have glued themselves to the cubby. This trick has been done before when I repaired a headboard.

    Sand Everything Smooth

    sand edges of cubby shelf

    Using a sanding sponge is smoothed all the edges, inside and out. This is a necessary step before painting.

     

    Use Jigsaw to Cut Thin Plywood

    cut out back of house cubby shelf with jigsaw

    I drew the outline of the cubby wall shelf on a piece of thin plywood and cut the shape with my jigsaw.

    How to Paint Cubby Wall Shelf

    paint cubby wall shelf with paint sprayer

    Of course, I used my Homeright Super Finish Max to primer this monster. But, again the weather turned cold and I had to work indoors. I tried to paint a topcoat by hand and it was horrible!

    I did two more light topcoats outside with the Finish Max.

    House Shaped Cubby Wall Shelf for Home Decor

    house cubby wall shelf MyRepurposedLife This thing is really large. I did end up gluing and tacking the outside frame with my nail gun.

     

     

    white cubby house wall shelf for Christmas MyRepurposedLife

    All of these Christmas decor items came from dollar stores. I staged it for Christmas, but this could be used as everyday decor for your favorite collectibles. I highly recommend that you check out Cristina’s project to see how you would like to go about making your own house shaped cubby wall shelf.

    Save and SHARE this on Pinterest.

     

    gail

    Pin
    Share
    Tweet

    Related Content:

    • Countdown to Christmas | Perpetual Calendar
      Countdown to Christmas | Perpetual Calendar
    • Pallet Wood Christmas Tree diy
      Pallet Wood Christmas Tree diy
    • Cubby Shelf Makeover
      Cubby Shelf Makeover
    • Old Drawer Cubby Organizer
      Old Drawer Cubby Organizer
    • Shadow Box Hook Shelf | Repurposed Window
      Shadow Box Hook Shelf | Repurposed Window
    • Reclaimed Wood Skyline Artwork | Louisville Kentucky
      Reclaimed Wood Skyline Artwork | Louisville Kentucky

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      See comments Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    1. eyeloveknots

      December 05, 2019 at 8:11 am

      This is really inspiring! Love how it's decorated for Christmas. The shelf itself reminds me of one I might find at a flea market. Pinned.

      Alexandra
      EyeLoveKnots.com

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        December 05, 2019 at 7:09 pm

        Thank you for pinning!!!!

        Merry Christmas to you!
        gail

    2. Rodney LeCompte

      December 03, 2019 at 4:05 am

      Great job Gail,it takes a lot of patience to put something together like this project.👍’s up on this one.Its always great to see your beginning and end project.On the 1 to 10 scale definitely a 10😁✌️

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        December 03, 2019 at 11:00 am

        Thanks so much Rodney!

        You know it was challenging at the beginning because you saw the puzzled looks on my face!

        gail

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, there! I’m Gail Wilson, the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. I’m obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believe that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again—myself included! I hope you’ll enjoy the journey and pick up a few tools along the way… literally!

    More about me →

    Join Our Mailing List

    ​

      Click the topics you're interested in below:

      Subscribing above means you agree to our Privacy Policy​

      Footer

      ↑ back to top

      SEEN ON

      Might I Suggest

      • Start Here
      • Furniture Makeovers

      Newsletter

      • Sign Up! for emails and updates

      About

      • Gail's Favorites on Amazon
      • About

      As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

      Copyright © 2023 My Repurposed Life · Privacy Policy · Disclosure