Nail Polish Storage - DIY Shelf

My nail polish collection was starting to take over my house.  I would find it in my living room, bedroom, bathroom...you name it, nail polish was probably there!  It was definitely time to find a place to keep these babies organized.  Previously, I just kept my nail polish in a drawer, but I really wanted to keep them on display somewhere.  That way I can see which colors I have, which makes it easier to find exactly what I'm looking for.  I decided that a shelf was the perfect solution!

I went to Lowes and bought three 21/32 x 2 x 8 primed boards, which were $3.24 each at my local store.  I had them cut the boards there (since it was free).  The first board was cut into three pieces (3 ft, 3 ft, 2 ft) and the remaining two boards were cut into four pieces (each piece was 2 ft).  The gentleman that cut them for me did a great job and the pieces were all even, but if you are building something more complex I would recommend cutting the wood at your house to ensure everything fits together right.  

Once I had all the pieces it was time to measure exactly where I wanted the shelves to go.  I started by putting the longest two boards (3 ft) on the sides, then a board at the top and a board at the bottom.  I made smaller spaces between the shelves at the top (to fit my Zoya, Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, etc.).  Then I made larger spaces between the shelves at the bottom (for my Julep, OPI, China Glaze, etc.).

Next, it was time to put the shelf together.  Here is where things got tricky.  I have absolutely no building experience.  I've used a drill to put screws in the wall to hang picture frames and that's about it.  So...I didn't know you were supposed to pre-drill with a drill bit.  When I tried to attach the boards with the screws the wood split.  Needless to say, I lost a couple of my shelves in this process. 

I gave up for a couple days, but when my family came to visit I enlisted the help of my Dad and we got to work!  We re-measured where the shelves would go, then pre-drilled all the holes for the screws.  The only place you need to put screws is in the sides (You can see where I put them in a couple of the pictures below).  We screwed the side boards into each shelf.  There were a couple places where the wood split a tiny bit, but nothing noticeable.

I smoothed out some of the edges with some sandpaper.  The boards I bought were already primed, so I just added a coat of white paint.  The only thing left to do was to display the nail polish on the shelf (this was my favorite part)!  I organized them by brand and then by color.  But, I soon realized the shelf is not even big enough for my whole collection!  As we were building it, I thought there was no way I could fill up all the shelves with what I had.  Well, I was wrong.  I guess I will have to build another one soon!

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It cost about $15 to make (boards-$10, screws-$5, paint-leftover from another project).  I probably could have found a less expensive storage solution, but the learning experience and bonding time with my Dad was worth every cent!  

So, what do you think?  How do you store your nail polish?