Today we're talking DIY wood shelves & I'm going to walk you through making your own. I was able to create these shelves for under $20, depending on the length you want you may pay even less. If you're visiting from Instagram, Facebook or Youtube welcome! I'm so glad you're here. If you missed last week's post about simple foyer updates click, here. Disclaimer: this post may contain affiliate links. This helps me continue to provide you with how-to DIY projects as well as blog posts, to learn more about what affiliate links are click, here. For the longest time I wasn't sure what to do with this area, but slowly it's evolving into something I really love.
I had an inspiration for this area, but I allowed that to be pretty fluid when I worked through my personal plan. When I'm looking for inspiration I don't usually head to Pinterest all the time, but for this occasion I checked it out. I also used a couple features, that I'd use for my clients on Houzz.
I headed to home depot with my measurements and an idea of two types of decorative corbels.
Surprisingly, I ended up not going with either of the corbels above and grabbed this one. My reason behind not doing these ornate versions, is specifically because I wanted this nook to really fit the design of my kitchen.
What may look great in some spaces doesn't necessarily do the same in all, so never use the blanket design approach. I purchased a standard common board in the length that would allow me to make two shelves.
I based my length of those shelves off of the length of my console that is under these shelves. I grabbed a can of paint that was the same color I painted my kitchen cabinets, because I wanted the color to be cohesive. As far as tools for this project, I used this Ryobi bundle I purchased a while back. I honestly use a piece of it practically on every DIY project I do & recommend it to everyone!
I've already cut my shelves to size & sanded them down with this sander. I really love the fact that all Ryobi batteries are interchangeable with so many different products! I can use the batteries that came with my bundle in any Ryobi tool!
Once they both were sanded down, I removed any dust or debris from them to ensure a smooth painted surface. I gave each board about three coats to ensure no wood was showing through. While my shelves were drying, I grabbed my painters tape & planned out where I wanted my shelves to be. I did this buy mirroring two shelves inside my kitchen cabinets with a laser level on the adjacent wall.
I made sure the length of my tape was the same length as my shelves. Then, I planned for the exact location of my corbels directly on the painters tape.
In order to do this properly you just need to measure the location of your screw holes & transfer that to your painters tape. I ripped off a small piece for a template & put that on the wall where each screw would go.
I drilled a pilot hole in my marked areas, because I planned on using anchors. Anchors are used in areas that don't have studs & provide the support that studs do in your drywall. You can purchase anchors for various weight classes, it just depends on what you need.
Once my anchors were added, I added in the screws & put my corbels on the wall. The last thing I did was remove the tape, add my shelves on top of the corbels & begun to style them.
Tell me what you think? If you have any questions, comments, tips or tricks to add to my DIY wood shelves blog post, please leave them in the comments below. I love to connecting with you guys.
~La