DIY Content: We’re not builders or experts in the trade industry, so please take any information on this blog as a rough guide and just our own experiences. This blog relates to our home only and you should always consult a professional in you’re in any doubt of work.

When you’re putting up heavy shelves that you expect to hold heavy items, I recommend always screwing through into the brick. At the end of the room, we’ve added some strips of timber on the wall on either side to support those deeper shelves. I left the oil on the scaffold boards for around 20-30 minutes before using an old rag to rub off any excess oil.Now we finally have electricity in our victorian cellar, we can actually start to properly use the space! The general technique I use is to brush the wax on with a paintbrush, leave it to soak in for about 20 minutes, and then buff it off using a special attachment for our power drill.

You want your brackets to cover at least three-quarters of the width of your shelf, however, for heavy-duty use, I’d personally always go longer (as you’ll see we have! We’re using new scaffold boards (as opposed to used ones) for this project, however, it means they currently lack any character.Once we’d cut our boards to size, I gave them a light sanding and then applied a thin layer of oil using a paintbrush. Don’t forget to leave a 35mm gap as shown below – we’ll need this part to secure the bracket to the wall. I’ve used some 120-grit sandpaper for this and then finished with a coloured coat in the colour ‘Peacock’ from Ronseal Garden’s Range*. We used Osmo topcoat oil on the worktops, but chose to use Fiddes wax in Rugger Brown on the shelves to give a different finish. Each bracket is hand made using a range of techniques, with cast iron, hand forged and angled iron options available.

It’s quite “rough and ready” in its raw finish, but as we’ll be using this space for tool storage – it’s perfect! The space between our bottom and middle shelf, and top shelf and ceiling, is exactly the same (30cm).To make the brackets for our scaffold shelves, we’re going to be using these roof battens*, however, you can use any similar-sized piece of timber (25mm x 38mm). As these brackets are made by hand all measurements are approximate, but will be as close as possible to the above.