Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

  • Home
  • Our Family
    • Our Home
  • Courses
  • Shop
  • Contact

DIY Wood Shelves

June 23, 2015 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

bedroom_shelvesFor 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.

messy_kids_dressersDo 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.

picking_out_wood_for_shelvesYou 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.

roommate_TNMT_decalFrom 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.

wood_sanderAfter 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.

working_at_home

wood_shelvesAfter 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.

wood_fillerI 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!

wood_staining

wood_stainMatt 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.

DIY_wood_shelves

wood_shelves_tutorialNext, 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!

boy_bedroom_shelves

boy_shelf_tutorialWe 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.

boy_shelvesWe 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.

industrial_book_shelves

DIY_wood_shelfI 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!

signature

 

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

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!

signature

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
YouTube-Channel
Erica Deuel

Subscribe for Weekly Updates!




Most Popular Posts

Painting Flower Pot Party Tips
DIY {easy} Burlap Wreath
DIY Outdoor Checker Board
DIY Burlap Flowers
Chiffon Flower Tutorial
DIY Paper Butterflies- Spring decor for cheap
DIY Outdoor Table
DIY King Size Rag Quilt {Repost}
Cheap lamp to Industrial Beauty
Engraved Wood Sign Tutorial (and Dremel Micro)

Categories

  • All About the Kids
  • art journal
  • Blogging
  • Christmas
  • Craft Projects
  • Dancing Zebras
  • DIY
  • Eddy's postcards
  • Embroidery Journal
  • Family
  • Featured
  • Fireside Chat
  • Foster Care
  • Giveaways
  • Guest Posts
  • Home
  • Homeschooling
  • Kid Activities
  • Kid Craft
  • My Heart
  • Our Outings
  • Project Spotlight
  • Send Out Love
  • Shop
  • Sponsored Posts
  • Spoonful Lab
  • Spoonful Tribe
  • Tips + Tricks
  • Traveling
  • Uncategorized
  • Vlog

Favorite Categories

Subscribe for Weekly Updates!

Favorite Categories

© 2023 Spoonful of Imagination, Inc.