The Playroom: Double Height Expedit Shelves

Double Height Expedit Shelves (totally disorganized)

I had a little time yesterday afternoon, while Maisie napped and Sam watched some “boy” TV so I took the opportunity to put together the second Expedit Shelving Unit. One thing our house has is height (9 1/2′ ceilings on the first and second floor). So after I saw that multiple people had double stacked these units, I was sold! We were limited in our footprint and cold only fit a 4 wide unit (I would have loved a 5 wide unit), so I am happy to make up for it up high. A lot of these cubes will be used to hold out of season clothes, kids artwork and things we don’t need to get to very often since I definitely need a ladder for the top row.

This was my inspiration:

Double Stacked Expedit from Apartment Therapy

I was a little nervous about stacking them until I installed the bottom unit and felt how sturdy it was with the wall attachments. Ikea gives you an angle for the 2 top corners. Then you have to determine how you are going to attach it to the wall. We have thick molding, so after some trial and error, I went with 8″ long 2×4 blocking. This way I could get a couple of 3″ decking screws into the wall. Once I felt like the blocking was secure I screwed the unit to the blocking. The angle attachment has a second piece that clamps down when tightened. I was really pleasantly surprised at how well it was attached.

Wall Attachment for the Expedit (Bracket comes with unit)

The second unit went together in about an hour (the first one took about 2 hours due to the size). Then I just needed to wait for Mr. S. to come home to help me lift it. It was actually easier than I thought. I screwed the blocking onto the wall and attached the angles to the unit ahead of time, to minimize the amount of work that I would need to do once it was in place. It only took me a couple of minutes to screw it in place after it was up.

Upper Shelf after being Installed

Pretty exciting, huh! Okay, so the room looks like a disaster still, but at least I finally have some space to put things. I even have a couple of empty boxes. Fortunately there is also a little bit of space at the top for some of our more fragile items. And I have gotten over my issues with having the same shelf as half of America.

Stay tuned for some styling next week!  I also haven’t bought any additional storage bins yet. I am going to try and get the kids to do some toy sorting with me this weekend, so we can determine what we actually need. Baby steps. Lots of baby steps!