Leaning Wall Shelves Part 2: Buying Boards

I like cheap. And at the beginning of a project, I can take on the world. Gonna need to sand a little to get that board looking like a premium board? Bring it on.

So I headed to Home Depot. And I went through all of their furring strips in 1×4 and 1×3 dimensions. All. of. them. I am not kidding. About halfway through I vowed to walk out of that store with every straight furring board that they had for sale, so that I didn’t have to do that again. I found exactly six. And no 1x3s.

So I headed to Lowes where I found 9 1x3s. Only nine, people. I went through hundreds of boards. Nine. I also looked at the Top Choice 1x4s and decided I should get 4 of them for the legs, since they would need to be pretty straight. And one 1x10x4.

For my modified shelves (two of them), you need:

7–1x3x8 furring strips (1.61 ea) $11.27

4–Top Choice 1x4x8 (4.82 ea) $19.28

2–1x4x8 furring strips (1.97 ea) $3.94

1–1x10x4 Top Choice (9.37 ea) $9.37

For a grand total of $46.82 including a 6.75% tax.

I recommend taking a small pair of scissors, tape measure, and coffee (you are, after all, going to be there for a good while). The scissors are for cutting open the stacks of furring strips, held together with plastic ties. The tape measure is so you know what dimensions you are actually coming home with. I thought a 1×10 was 3/4 x 9 1/2. It’s not.

After a Google search, I found out I am not being ripped off–a 1×10 is indeed supposed to be 3/4 x 9 1/4. Don’t forget the tape measure–I have heard some people have gotten home with boards that do not quite make the measurements that they are supposed to, and that makes it hard on the builder when assembling. It pays to double check before checking out.