If you’re planning outdoor organization or outdoor home improvements this spring, I wanted to share these two projects as inspiration of what’s possible. In both cases, I installed Elfa shelving in a shed without drywall.

These projects took a lot of thought and precision, and will explain why below, but wanted to assure you this is totally possible!

Maybe not exactly what The Container Store would recommend (lol!), but when has Sam ever said no to helping families add more space / function with Elfa material?!

BEFORE – ALAMO, CALIFORNIA

This family is doing a fair amount of home renovating and updates, including the addition of a home office for him. The new office space is located in what used to be the third garage stall. They enclosed and transformed it into interior space. It’s nearly completed as of today and looks incredible!

But before getting to that point, WAY BACK in 2021, we first needed to declutter their garage and make a plan for where everything would live…now with one less garage stall. Once we completed the first session, and before getting a custom cabinet quote, they gave thought to adding a couple outdoor sheds. One that would be enclosed for holiday items / things they don’t need all that often and one that would be partially open for the bikes / outdoor toys.

Here’s the enclosed shed after it was assembled…

You can see it’s beautifully constructed and has electrical / lighting as well…

They were aware of my Elfa expertise and asked my opinion on adding shelving. At first I had to think about it – would it be possible? Yes. But it would take a lot of thought. Why? Because there isn’t drywall in the shed and they weren’t planning to add it. Which meant I would need to install the hanging standards directly into the studs.

That task alone is easy … what is beyond challenging is making sure every hanging standard is hung EXACTLY the same. Why? (I know, a lot of why’s here!). Because if they don’t line up, the shelves won’t be level.

Make sense?

Every single hole on each hanging standard needs to line up to the standard next to it.

Typically, Elfa hangs off one top track. As long as you’re installing that track perfectly straight / level, everything hanging from the system will also be level and easy to install / manipulate from there.

AFTER – ALAMO, CALIFORNIA

I thought about it for a few days and told them I was up for the challenge. Not going to lie, it was a pain in the ass for sure…but you’ll agree, worth it! And if you look closely, you can see what I mean about those hanging standards being installed exactly the same…

There were certainly moments you could find me on the floor stressed out / whining, but I’m a never say never type of organizer. The one quality I have in excess is PATIENCE.

It turned out beautifully! I installed the shelving on the two walls you see because much of their construction material needed to sit near the third wall. I may return at some point to add another wall of shelving, but for now they have a great amount of space and we’re all pleased with the outcome!

BEFORE – DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA

Since this is a similar project, I thought I would share them together.

This family was also going through the process of decluttering with us and considering a custom cabinet design. In the midst, they considered an outdoor shed. Their thinking was it would be a great space to store gardening supplies, large folding tables / chairs they use occasionally, and more. We have worked for them previously so they are a member of our Instagram community…and saw the shed above that we installed. So they reached out before putting down a deposit on custom cabinets – smart move!

Here’s the shed before – a smaller footprint…

But definitely one that could benefit from shelving.

During the coldest days this winter, here I was all bundled up installing those hanging standards…

My hands were frozen to the bone!…

Due to the smaller footprint, my goal was to get the corner together as tight as possible. In the end, I overlapped the shelving to achieve this.

AFTER – DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA

After more rolling around and whining on my part, here’s the outcome!…

You can see there’s extra space to add additional shelves should they want. Here’s a video of the installation and organizing of this Danville shed…

These two team members are my most veteran on the team – Kim and Maria. Hoping to introduce you to everyone on the team very soon!

Sharing these two projects was important so that I could reiterate how easy it is to complete AND that it is very possible.

I’ll share the install video of the Alamo shed on our YouTube channel soon as well! Have you subscribed over there yet? I would sincerely love to have you join us!

Back soon with more!

xo,

Sam