I have been SO busy this week and gotten a ton done! I got all my shelves cut, painted and installed. There are a couple fixed shelves in this large cabinet but the rest are adjustable. The fixed shelves are covered by the faceframe so I like to add a faceframe to adjustable shelves too. 
How to add Faceframe to Adjustable Shelves
I’ve shown you my tricks for drilling shelf pin holes and I frequently get asked about adding a faceframe to adjustable shelves.
When adding a faceframe to shelves that sit behind the cabinet faceframe, I first size the adjustable shelves and set them in place. Then attach a faceframe to each shelf.
The “rail” needs to be cut short to allow the shelf to move — because that’s the purpose of adjustable shelves. 😉 If you butt the rail up to the cabinet “stile” (vertical faceframe piece), you won’t be able to tilt the shelf up in order to adjust it.
I leave about 1/16″ of space on each side.
Attach with glue and nails.
All of the shelves are plywood so the ones where I just painted the fronts, I first coated the front with wood putty and sanded them smooth.
So now we have lots and lots of shelves.
I put a few things in the pantry so I could determine where to place the adjustable shelves so it’s a mess.
But it periodically gets messy like this because Wes thinks it’s funny to put stuff away IN the pantry while I’m still working on it so I have to continually move stuff back out again. So I started storing bottles of caulk on his spice shelf right next to the cooktop. It took hime about 4 days to realize it! hahaha
The things we do to entertain ourselves.
Amy C says
Your posts have perfect timing!!! I was just looking at an amazing dining room shelf built in that sadly didn’t have adjustable shelves and wondering if it’d even be possible to do something like that and then you post this! I love your blog – thank you so much for the tutorials and the inspiration to build!
Tom says
One thing that I have been wondering about adjustable shelves… do you cut them just a little narrower than your fixed shelves (and top and bottom for that matter)? That way, they can be moved around without scraping the sides I would think.
I hope that makes sense!
Sandra says
Yes that makes sense and that’s exactly right. I size my adjustable shelves about 1/8″ shorter on the width. I don’t take any off the depth unless it appears to be too tight. If so, then I’ll shave a little off the depth as well.