Hey, it's Abby and today I wanted to talk about one of the more unorganized spaces in
our house...
Donnie's home office.
If you remember from our home tour a few weeks ago when I showed you in there, it was kind
of a wreck.
Part of the problem was that he had a lot of stuff to store and not much space to do
it in.
So we've decided to use the ELFA system from the Container Store to really maximize the
storage space and really make the most of the area he has there.
In today's video, we'll be talking about how we chose the pieces that we needed for Donnie's
office and installed them in order to create that wall of storage that he was hoping for.
Now Donnie's office is a great space.
It's right on the main floor of our house, it gets a ton of natural light, he has a great
view.
But we needed it to do a lot.
So we knew pretty early on that we wanted to use the ELFA system from the Container
Store to help maximize his storage in there.
Every time we would go visit the Container Store, I would find Donnie back in the ELFA
systems looking at all the different options trying to figure out what would be the best
configuration for his office.
So, finally a couple weeks ago we got all the dimensions that we needed, we measured
everything in the space, we kinda laid out everything we needed to organize to see what
needed to fit where and we made a trip up to the Container Store.
Donnie was able to meet with the people there and they were able to help him design the
best configuration for his needs in his exact space.
We placed the order and then were able to go pick everything up the next day.
Once we got all the pieces home, Donnie could not wait to install everything and since he
was the one who was in charge of that process, I'm going to let him tell you about it.
So after I cleared everything out of the office and painted, I brought in all the ELFA components
and just laid them all out so I had an idea of everything I was working with.
It's nice that each ELFA order comes with this little red back with all the small components
and hardware and on the outside pocket is customized instructions for my specific design
so I looked through that.
I also watched some installation videos on the Container Store website and that was helpful
cause it gave me a better idea of what I was in for with the installation.
By far the most important part of installing ELFA shelves or the ELFA system is the top
rail.
Everything hangs from this so it's super important for strength but also for location.
Drawer and shelf location can be changed later if you change your mind but the top rail location
can not be changed so definitely take your time with this part of the installation.
First I had to figure out the left and right location of the top rail.
My rail was in two separate pieces and it was custom cut to fit my build so I lined
them up together on the floor and then marked the middle and then i went up to the wall
and marked the middle of the wall because I wanted the rail centered left and right
on the wall.
To figure out how high I should anchor the top rail, I had to hold up one of my uprights
against the wall to get a feel for how high and low I wanted my shelves.
For my build, I used the tallest 84" upright and I just decided that I wanted them centered
vertically on the wall so that was pretty easy.
Then I marked the top of the upright and so I knew that would be the height of the top
rail.
The hardest part of the whole installation was trying to hold up the top rail at the
correct location, the correct height, and keep it level and then mark the little holes
in the top rail onto the wall.
I think this would have been a lot easier with two people but even just by myself I
was able to make it work.
So once all the holes were marked, I used a 1/8" drill bit to drill test holes at all
the different marks.
So if I hit the hollow wall, I knew I would need to use a drywall anchor but if I hit
a stud I marked that hole to remind myself later to use a screw at that particular hole.
So i was fortunate to hit multiple studs so I didn't need to completely depend on the
drywall anchors which makes me a little bit nervous.
For the non-stud locations, I redrill the little holes with a 3/8" drill bit and then
tap the drywall anchors in with the rubber mallet.
It's nice that the specific drywall anchors and screws are included with your order so
there's no guesswork on what type of hardware or if it's strong enough that the anchor will
work or not.
It's all included.
Then I held up the top rail, lined up the holes, and anchored it to the wall with my
cordless driver drill.
I did finish tightening the drywall anchors by hand because I wanted to make sure they
were really really tight but at the same time, you don't want to risk over tightening and
then destroying the anchor and then they won't be strong.
I repeated the same exact process for that small section of the top rail that you can
see on the upper right and then after the top rail was in place, I hung all 5 of my
uprights on the rail.
To do this, you have to line them up with these little grooves or notches that are on
the top rail but then once they're down and into place you can slide them back and forth
to the correct spot.
The nice thing about ELFA compared to some of the other shelving systems I've used is
that the uprights are free hanging so you don't have to worry about getting the spacing
perfect for the uprights which can be really difficult with long pieces like that.
So once you add the shelves, all the uprights will pretty much automatically space themselves
out.
The Container Store did include in that red bag a little paper spacer template.
For my build, the uprights were 24" apart on center but depending on your build, they'll
have different spacers included in your order.
So next it was time to snap in the shelf brackets.
I tested a few different heights for the bottom row of shelves and once I found the height
I liked, I added the brackets.
To attach the shelves to the brackets, you just basically slide the brackets into the
upright.
To attach the shelves to the brackets, I first had to snap in these little wire clips to
the bottom of the shelves which just takes a minute or two and then you can set in an
entire row of shelves.
It's really nice and easy.
Once I had the first row of shelves installed, I adjusted all the uprights to make sure they
were all vertical and they were where they should be.
If I loaded too much onto the unit before I had everything spaced, it would have been
hard to slide the uprights around.
I grabbed a few different containers that I knew I wanted to store on the bottom shelf.
This helped me decide where to put the next drawer brackets.
One thing to note about all the brackets that was a little confusing for me, especially
when you're looking at an entire pile of brackets and boxes.
The 16" shelves that I used on the bottom don't use 16" brackets.
They use 14" brackets but the drawers that are roughly the same size as the shelves do
use 16" brackets.
So it was a little confusing at first but once I figured it out everything went smoothly.
Also if you're using any ventilated metal shelving like I do at the very top of this
unit, those brackets are a little bit different.
They have these little notches in them to accept the ventilated shelving.
So once I figured out the bracket situation, I installed my first row of drawers.
With the drawers, you just install the brackets, then you attach the drawer frames with rollers
to the brackets and then the baskets just drop right into those frames and so that makes
your wire mesh drawer.
I made sure the uprights were vertical one more time and made a few adjustments just
by knocking them left or right with my hand or with a rubber mallet and then I added my
second row of smaller drawers.
From there it was just about continuing to add rows of brackets and shelves.
When I wasn't sure of the height I wanted to use, I would grab a book or something else
that I knew would be on that shelf.
The great thing is that the shelf height can be changed in a matter of minutes so I wasn't
locked into anything.
When I worked my way up to the top, I snapped in the ventilated shelving and I was done!
I am REALLY happy with how everything turned out.
The whole build took about two hours but it was really fun because I saw so much progress
so quickly.
Everything was straight forward with ELFA from the Container Store and I didn't have
any issues at all putting it all together.
The total cost of my shelving unit and also another smaller shelving area on the other
side of the room that you won't see until next week was $1200.
The nice thing about ELFA is it's possible to have a huge range of prices.
If I just used ventilated shelves for the entire thing and made it really simple, it
would have been MUCH less expensive.
The drawers definitely add cost pretty quickly and I also bought a lot of little extra accessories
like drawer dividers and book ends and brackets and hooks and label holders and a bunch of
other smaller little things that added to the cost.
I do think that the cost, while not cheap, is a great value.
It's really good quality stuff, it fits together perfectly, and I know the Container Store
will continue to make ELFA long into the future so if I need a different arrangement, I'll
be set.
For this particular build, I decided to use the metal colored or gray top rail, uprights,
and brackets.
The other option is white which I think would look great in a lot of rooms but for my office,
I definitely like the silver or gray color.
There are lots of different shelving style and color options but we ended up using the
sand color shelves.
It's not their top of the line shelf.
I think their top of the line shelf are their decor shelves but I really like the look of
the sand colored shelves up against the gray wall and the texture of these particular shelves
just felt better than some of the other options to me.
So that was my experience with my first ever ELFA installation.
I'm just so happy with how everything turned out.
I think it looks great.
I can't wait to fill it up and get everything organized.
So i hope that was a helpful rundown of the ELFA installation process.
We've seen the ELFA system used in a lot of garages and closets but we also love how it's
turning out in this home office are and giving so much usable storage space.
Donnie thought it was so simple to install and it was really easy to customize it for
his exact needs.
So everything is looking pretty bare and empty right now but next week we're going to be
back with the reveal of his entire office space including another little section of
ELFA we decided to use and the solution that we came up with for Donnie's desk that he's
really excited about as well.
Have you ever used the ELFA system in your home?
I would love to know where you used it and what your experience was like with it.
Let me know in the comments below!