we bought our home shortly after it was built, which was great-and i'm totally not complaining-because i was excited to be the first people to live in it! however, part of me wishes we had found this place during it's building days, so that i could be the one to pick out everything before it was finished...and maybe have them throw in a few things (okay, so i know "throwing things in" really adds up...hah!). but one of those "things" would have been a shelf in my kitchen nook/dining area.
as luck would have it, i happen to have a bro-in-law who's a construction manager, and who gave me easy instructions to build my own. he actually built one for his own home, which is where i got this idea!
so you'll notice my shelf in the image above, is very plain. i wanted that look, because it flows with our modern/clean house design. i wanted it to match the baseboards. my bro-in-law on the other hand, did his with crown molding, so it looks super fancy and it goes awesome with their house. to each his own, right? just wanted to throw that out there in case someone was wondering.
here's what you'll need:
• a 12'x6"x1" (LxWxH) board*. i bought mine at Home Depot. and it says 6", but the width was really more like 5.5"...just so you don't get confused by my drawings below!
• a table saw. my dad happens to live down the road and has one so...that's super handy! if you don't own one yourself, ask a friend or neighbor, then bake them cookies :)
• a sander
• wood filler/putty
• wood screws. we used wood to wood/wood to masonry screws, interior use. 1 1/4".
• paint. i used the same paint from our house, that was used on the baseboards.
*note: when you buy your board, ask if they'll cut it for you right there in the store, most places do. some charge extra and some don't. but it never hurts to ask!
as far as actually building the shelf...i can take no credit. my dad and hubby did it all, and i just sat back eating bonbons. just kidding...about the bonbons (mostly i was taming children). they both love a good project every now and then, and this one was small and perfect. i oversaw everything and was right there helping, when my dad cut the "inside shelf ledge" with his table saw. that is the only piece that needed to be a shorter WIDTH than the original 5.5". i promise, it makes more sense if you look at the pictures below!
after everything was cut to the right dimension, Kevin sanded them all and screwed them together for me. i then covered the screws with putty, waited for that to dry, and then painted away.
to hang it up, kevin placed two small pieces of wood (4.25"x2.5") on the wall, screwed those in, then screwed the shelf onto those. hopefully this picture will help:
if you end up building your own from these instructions, leave me a link in the comments so i can go take a look at how it turned out!
*see some ways i decorated this shelf here
*see some ways i decorated this shelf here
1 comment