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DIY Industrial Shelves

April 30, 2015 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

diy_industrial_shelvesWhen I was a little girl, I wanted to be a librarian. Visiting used books stores and using my baby-sitting money to buy books was one of my favorite things to do. Today, I still have a lot of those books. My Baby-Sitters Club series I know is a hot commodity. I just hope Reagan likes those books too or I have saved them all these years…to just save them.

When we settled in this house, we knew we wanted to get some of the books (that had been boxed up from two moves ago-when we moved out of our first home) unpacked. We needed shelves to make this possible! After thinking through different designs and furniture options, we came up with this industrial open shelving solution.

It is in our foster care bedroom, which is a smaller room. There’s only really one wall option for the daybed, which left one possible wall for the shelves. We worked around a closet, and I want to share our process so you can create these shelves too!

before_bedroom_makeoverSupplies needed for each shelf: (The length of wood or the amount of each item is up to how long your shelf may end up)

  •  2″ x 8″ boards
  • 1/2″ x 8″ black iron pipe (in the plumbing section)
  • 1/2″ black iron cap fitting (in the plumbing section)
  • 1/2″ galvanized floor flange (in the plumbing section) we got the galvanized because I liked the contrast with the black iron. You can get which ever color you like.
  • 2 1/2″ Screws
  • Drywall Anchors w/Screws (Or whatever anchor you need for your type of wall)

We started by painting the wall. I painted it the same wall color of our boys bedroom. Matt then checked for studs in the wall. Our house is an older house, so our wall was a little warped. This made it a little difficult to measure. Once Matt had found the studs that is how we decided where to place the floor flanges. Matt started with the top shelf and lined up the floor flanges with the studs. These shelves are heavy, before you even place anything on them. Make sure to properly anchor them to the wall. He turned the floor flange so that two of the holes would line up with the stud. For the other two holes he used Drywall anchors. The anchors, of course, need to be installed prior to attaching to the wall studs. Once all the holes were lined up and the drywall anchors were installed, he drove in the screws.

making_shelvesThe shelf seemed a little crooked at first. Keep in mind you are working with wood that could be warped, so look for the strongest/flattest boards when picking up your supplies. This can take some time and patience. Big box store wood is usually crappy but if you dig through the pile you can find some good pieces. Also, keep in mind the boards may settle a little  once there is weight on them. Finally, once all of your shelves are in place and staged, it is very difficult to spot minor imperfections.

Once the floor flanges were in place, it was as simple as screwing in the iron pipe and then screwing the iron cap in place.

how_to_make_shelvesWe placed our shelves the same 18″ apart. This step is totally up to you. I wanted room for tall books, decor, and to still see some wall which is how we came up with our distance. Matt completed the same process on the two lower shelves. Once we had the pipes in place, it was easy to tell how long our boards needed to be cut. We cut them and placed them on the pipes to be sure it was what we wanted.

diy_shelvesThis is where we realized the pipes we had bought did not look right. We started with the 10″ black iron pipe, but ended up returning them for the 8″. If you buy the 8″ pipes than you wont have the large gap in your shelves. What we also realized is that the threads on the pipe will not screw all the way into the flange or the cap.  Below you can see the difference in using the 10″ inch and 8″ pipes. Of course you could purchase 2″ x 10″ wood to give yourself a wider shelf. That’s what I love about this shelf system, it’s totally customizable.

making_industrial_wall_shelvesI was not sure what kind of color I wanted to make the shelves, so we tested a few out. Since this room is a little smaller with only one small window, it tends to feel darker. I painted the walls a light, light blue and decided to keep the shelves light as well. I thought if the walls and shelves were lighter overall, I could add pops of color for fun but still brighten the room up a bit in the overall feel. I ended up going with Rust-oleum’s Driftwood Stain. I love it!

testing_wood_stainsI used a sponge brush and painted the boards. I let the stain sit for a while and then I used an old t-shirt to rub the excess stain off.

rustoleum_wood_stainOnce the stain was dry, we put the boards in place. I loved the look, but decided I wanted one more shelf. I opted for it to not go any lower, so the kids were not at arms reach. We did something a little different and ended up turning around the corner and adding another shelf out of the middle of our current series.industrial_shelves_tutorial

shelves_for_kids_roomI love how it turned out! I even got most of our books out on the shelves in the process. I plan to switch out the books in the basket (on the floor) with new ones from the shelf or kids room, so our kids can be regularly reading/looking at books but not having to try to get them off the shelf themselves.

Since this is our foster care bedroom and we don’t know the exact age or gender that will be with us at any time, it was a little hard to know how to decorate the room. I love to make things personal, but I figure decorating the shelves can easily change once the room is in use. I used a few signs, stuffed animals, plants, and other little things to decorate the shelves around all the books. It made a sweet little reading corner, don’t you think?

DIY_wood_book_shelves

kids_reading_cornerI’m so excited at how fun this little corner turned out while still being very functional. We rocked all three of our babies in that rocker, and now it’s in a room where we hope to love on more kids that come into our home.

I have such a thing for mixing colors, and I just love that the shelves have the galvanized, black, and light stain coloring all incorporated. You can easily modify this shelf colors to fit your taste too!

industrial_book_shelvesWhen you walk in our front door, this room is immediately to your right. I love that it looks like a fun, welcoming spot.  We all love to sit in there already. Matt called it my library the other day, and my heart smiled. This room will hopefully get lots of use.

bohemian_house

DIY_book_shelvesWhat do you think? Do you have a place in your home that could use some fun, industrial type shelves?

Do you still have your childhood books as well? Please tell me I’m not the only one! Hoarder alert 🙂

I hope you’re having a great week-thanks so much for stopping by!

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DIY Colorful Shelf

April 9, 2013 By Erica Deuel 7 Comments

diy colorful shelves

Do you have an old bookcase that you don’t really like anymore, yet you don’t want to part with it? I have had this cute little shelf unit sitting out in my garage for months and months. I didn’t want to part with it, but I knew it needed something (for me to love it enough) to put it in my house.

I love the cute little size of this shelf. I foresee turning it horizontally and using it above a desk or dresser. I knew it definitely needed some updating since the back was peeling off, so that is where I started. I transformed that old piece into a gorgeous new shelf that I just adore, and I want to share with you how I did it.

First off, I kicked off the back board and removed all the nails that were holding it in place.

redo shelf unit

Next, I cut some fill-it strip boards to replace the back of my shelf unit. I needed seven wood strips to fill my back. Depending on the size of your unit you might want to use wider/bigger boards, but you can use this same idea.

Raw Trim PiecesI found some of my favorite colors in my acrylic paint stash and roughly painted my fill-it strip boards. I didn’t worry about making it a nice even thick coat. I wanted it to be rough and a light coat, so stain would fill in the gaps latter.

painted boardsYou might be able to tell in the above picture that I even put two colors on some boards. The idea is just to add some color and life to the old piece!

Next, I sanded the shelf unit and roughly painted it with some white paint. I then stained everything with the same color stain.

Staining painted wood

colorful shelves

I absolutely love the way color and stain work together to create a fun contrast. Beautiful! Finally, I arranged my fill-it strip boards in the order I wanted on the back of my shelf unit, and started hammering them in one at a time.

hammering shelves

back of shelvesMy shelf was then done! I love the way it turned out, and I can’t wait to style it up and use it!

colorful shelf

items to stage a shelfThank you so much for checking out my new shelf!  I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

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DIY Mirror

March 1, 2013 By Erica Deuel 6 Comments

DIY Small Mirror

I don’t know about you but I treat my house like a canvas. The pictures and creations of our family fill our home. I love it that way. Unfortunately when selling a house you have to stage it in a way that people can envision their home and not mine. The whole process has lead to a lot of amazing clean up, de-cluttering, and even new creations along the way. Many of you gave me awesome feedback and suggestions on twitter and facebook.  Thank you for teaching me how to decorate shelves that look more aesthetic and pleasing to the eye. I’ve learned a lot.  I have a whole post coming to share what I have learned, but today I want to show a quick DIY mirror I came up with to use as a staging item on my shelves.

book shelf items

natural elements on book shelves

living room shelves

These simple little mirrors were so cheap and easy to make.  I think they make a great item to display that adds a pop of color, yet they are not a picture, candle, or book.

To make your own mirrors here are a few supplies you will need:

  • Wood circles (I got mine for $1.99 each at Michaels)
  • Mirrors (I got mine for $1.00 each at the Dollar Tree)
  • Acrylic paint
  • Paint brush
  • Sandpaper
  • Super glue
  • Spray gloss finish

supplies to make a mirror

The first step is to pick out the color you want your mirror(s) and paint it a solid color.  I wanted my three mirrors to kind of coordinate, so I decided to try something new.  After I let that first coat of paint dry, I switched up my three paint colors and painted over the dried paint with one of the other three colors.

painting coordinating colors

painting tip

painting over other colors

I literally poured paint onto my wood circle and painted it a solid color in a different color.  Try to do a nice thick, even coat.  I then used some sandpaper to lightly sand the edges, sides, and top of my wood circles so the first paint color would show through.  I love how this step created a worn, artsy, colorful look.  Be careful to not sand to hard or much or you will completely wear off that first layer of paint and go straight down to the wood.

light sanding to wood

two tone color mirrors

Once the wood circles are sanded, it is time to make them look a little more finished and professional.  I used Rust-oleums clear gloss to spray a nice even coat of finish over my wood circles.  Once you have done this step, let the circles completely dry.

rustoleum gloss clear spray

spray shine

After the shine finish has dried, use a little super glue to stick onto the back of the mirror to place it in the center of your wood circles.  After the glue has dried, your mirror(s) is done!

gluing a mirror

make a Mirror

I love the simple pop of color these mirrors add to my shelves.  They were such a quick and easy project to do.  I kind of want to make a dozen more, but I am refraining.  Since I already had a couple of the supplies, each mirror cost me about $3.00!  What a great deal for a fun piece to have in my house.

staging book shelves

DIY decorative mirror

I am really into circles right now which might be one reason why I love these mirrors so much.  I’m currently STILL working on my circle rug.  It hasn’t gotten much attention lately, but I plant to work on it more this weekend.  Do you have a project lined up for the weekend?  I would love to hear about it!

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