These shelves are very sturdy and look great. Yes, you could but some 2 x 4s and stain them, and maybe find brackets somewhere, but for the price I think they're great. I got these on sale and I think they're a good value. They were easy to hang and provided you use the right wall brackets or attach to studs, they can hold a lot. We ended up purchasing some shorter screws and washers rather than using the bolts that came with. Very happy with how these turned out.