For months my boys have slowly been adding things to their dressers. It started as one small card or lego creation to a full on craze. In their eyes, it is the most beautiful mess.
Do you see the beauty as well or do your mom nerves (like mine) kind of cringe too at those pictures? You can see what the chartreuse dresser first looked like here and my son’s red dresser/chalkboard wall here.
They have reached this age that when I ask them to pick up their room and toys there are things they don’t want just thrown in a bucket.
I found myself in this pivotal mom moment. I don’t want to raise my kids with a passion of things, but I also want them to appreciate what they have and take care of those things well. Throwing action figures in a bucket of toys is one thing, but there are things like their art, trophies, pen pal letters, basketball card collection, nature collections, Hawks programs, movie tickets, and mementos of ‘home’ that are special. Most of these things are items that I could say, “throw them in a drawer,” but then I remember…Those things they are proud of.
They want to see them easily and know that they wont be messed with by siblings/friends/dogs. Their little lives don’t have all the milestones, scars, and triumphs ours have had. Those things are their memories. In time, some might get thrown out, but for today they are held tightly. My boys will feel loved by me showing a little love for things that are important to them, so I have refrained from telling them to throw stuff out or hide it merely for my OCD tendencies.
I realized that they needed shelves. Having one central area dedicated to this would be wonderful, so it was time to get out my tools.
I started by shopping for some wood.
You may have some of these supplies on hand, but a lot of the supplies can be altered depending on how you finish your shelves off. I will list the supplies I used to make my shelves, but just know you can alter and make do with different things to get this same look.
Supplies:
- 10″ x 1″ boards for the shelves
- garden stacks
- Ryobi Sander
- Ryobi nail gun
- Wood filler
- Wood Stain
- Foam brush
- Ikea Shelf brackets (these were $0.49 each in my store)
The first step I did was measure the little nook where I wanted my shelves to go here in my boys’ room.
From wall to wall it measured 35″, so I used my Ryobi Miter Saw and cut all my boards (including my garden stacks) 34 1/2″. I then sanded the boards.
After all the boards were sanded, I used my nail gun and nailed the garden stacks to one side of the 10″ wide boards. My original thought was that this little lip would face down and create an illusion that the shelf boards were made from a thicker, rustic wood. While nailing the boards together though, I decided to use the lip face up, so it created a little wall that could help keep the boys stuff from falling off the shelf easily. This is a boys’ room with a basketball hoop on the bunk bed, so who knows what can happen.
After all the shelves were pieced together, I used wood filler to cover my nail holes. I let the wood filler completely dry, sanded over it, and was then ready to stain my shelves.
I used a foam craft brush and painted the stain on. I left it to completely dry (instead of rubbing it off with a cloth). I wanted a dark look. I did both sides and then my part was done!
Matt did the hard part of measuring, spacing the shelves out, and making sure they were level. These little plastic braces were so inexpensive, yet they totally work. I think they look great! We didn’t have any black screws on hand, so we used the silver we had and I went back and painted a little acrylic paint over each screw and you can’t tell the difference.
Next, the really fun part happened. The boys got to decorate their shelves. They were so excited. They would hold something and contemplate if it should go on their shelf. After placing it, they would stand back and admire. They were so excited. I literally bit my tongue as I saw my beautiful shelves get decorated….well beautifully :).
The boys were thrilled, the dressers were a little cleaner, my boys continually said how much they loved their new shelves, and I think their little hearts felt loved. That was the point, so the after picture looks perfect to me!
We do a lot of tasks for our kids as parents, I hope my kids feel us pursuing them more than anything else we do. Their little hearts, interests, memories matter most.
We have already built a lot of shelves in our time here in Indiana. You might like these as well. Click either of the pictures below to be redirected to those blog posts, if you are interested in their tutorial.
I love shelves. Can you relate!?
If you have kids or know kids, I hope you are able to go a little extra step and use your imagination and skills to help them feel loved this week. Every moment matters!
When 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.
Supplies needed for each shelf: (The length of wood or the amount of each item is up to how long your shelf may end up)
The 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.
We 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.
This 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.
I 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!
I 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.
Once 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.
I 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.
I’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.
What do you think? Do you have a place in your home that could use some fun, industrial type shelves?