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These shelves are the most simple project in Philip and Kate Haxell's book Simple Handmade Garden Furniture: 23 Step-by-Step Weekend Projects, and yet they are so useful. Hang them inside or outside the potting shed to store pots and dishes, or to display plants. Hung next to the barbecue table they will hold tools and condiments for no-fuss cooking.

You need:
• 3 pieces timber: 3/4- x 5-1/2- x 19-1/2- inches
• Dowel, 1-1/2- x 19-1/2- inches
• Cord, 2 lengths: 1/4- x 78- inches
• 120-grit sandpaper
• Sanding block
• Tape measure
• Pencil
• Drill
• 1/4-inch and 3/16-inch drill bits
• Countersink bit
• Masking tape
• Backsaw
• 1/2-inch-wide chisel
• Mallet
• Exterior wood stain
• Paintbrush

Take a look at the step-by-step instructions for these hanging shelves.

To make:
1. Round off the corners of the pieces of lumber with sandpaper and chamfer the edges. Drill a 1/4-inch hole in each corner of each piece of lumber. The holes in the two back corners are 3/4-inch from each edge; the holes in the two front corners are 3/4-inch from the front edge and 1-inch from the side edge.

2. Predrill and countersink two 3/16-inch holes in the length of dowel, with one hole 3-1/8-inches from each end. Mark a pencil line around the dowel 5/8-inch from each end and a second pencil line 1-1/8-inches from each end. Put a piece of tape along the blade of a backsaw, 1/4-inch up from the cutting edge, and saw around all the pencil lines, ensuring that you do not cut, deeper than the tape.
 

3. Using a chisel and mallet, chisel out the wood between the saw lines to make a 1/2-inch-wide trench, 1/4-inch deep. Stain all the pieces of lumber and the length of dowel with exterior wood stain.

4. Tie a knot in one end of each length of cord, and put tape around the other end to keep it from fraying. Thread the taped end of each length through one of the back holes in a piece of lumber, and pull it through up to the knot.

5. Measure up the cords 8-inches from the top of the shelf and make pencil marks. Tie knots in the cords so that the pencil marks sit exactly at the top of the knots. Thread the lengths of cord through the back holes in the second shelf. Measure, knot the cords, and thread them through the top shelf in the same way. The spacing between the knots must be accurate or the finished shelves will not hang straight.

6. Measure up the cords 24-inches from the top of the top shelf and make pencil marks. Thread the cords down through the front holes in the top shelf and then tie knots so that the pencil marks sit exactly at the top of the knots. Thread the cords down through the front holes in the other two shelves, knotting them below each one; adjust the knots until the shelves are level.

7. Loop each 24-inches of cord around the trench in each end of the dowel. At the back of the shelves, the cord runs around the outer edge of the trench, moving to the inner edge at the front.

To hang the shelves, drive appropriate screws through the predrilled holes in the dowel into the wall you want to hang them from. If you are hanging the shelves from a masonry wall, use wall plugs.