My biggest build yet - a massive LEGO storage shelf

The only thing bigger than this built in LEGO shelf is the LEGO collection of the friend that I built it for. The whole family love to build LEGO sets, both as a family and individually, and they have everything from sets that you drool over in the window of the LEGO store, and sets that you never even knew existed (like the side scroller original NES model). And of course, with a collection that varied, they couldn't find a storage solution in a store that fit their needs exactly.

Which is where custom furniture builders come in.

This shelf was design specifically to hold the Rivendell set, which was the newest addition to the collection, but was too big for them to actually put together and display anywhere. So I designed the shelf first and foremost with compartments to fit that set. And there just happened to be plenty of room in the 51-inch wide nook to put a second, smaller compartment next to it. And then for some visual interest, I alternated those big/small compartments, and added a smaller shelf where they could store their equally impressive collection of LEGO mini figures, which was one of the asks for this build as well.

Typically, I'd build a high quality project like this out of a high quality wood, but their basement was already full of knotty pine, and we wanted the shelf to blend into the room a bit so as not to take attention from the LEGOs themselves. I didn't use knotty pine, but I did find some great quality 6/4 pine at Highland Hardwoods that I was able to build panels out of. Building all those panels reminded my why so many shelves like this are made of plywood.

They'd already managed to find a stain that matched their existing woodwork, so we just used that on this shelf as well. It's not a 100% match - fading over the years and small changes to the color formula over several decades pretty much guarantee that a 100% isn't going to happen. But it looks great, and once it was secured into place, you can't even tell that it hasn't been part of the house since it was built.

Now the only problem is that it's still not big enough for their entire collection - it might be time to invest in a second one!

Check out the full build video on the NineRings WoodCraft YouTube Channel.