I made some shelves for the little nook next to my desk. The space has
been unused since moving into the house because a) no furniture fits and b) art looks funny there. After a whole lot of
procrastination, I finally got around to making some shelves.
At
first I had planned to make the brackets invisible, but it came down to
a test of will between the house and I. Let's say that the house won
and I'm a fool for assuming walls come together at precise, 90 degree
angles.
Plan B was easier.
Supplies:
Plywood
Primer and Paint (White, semi-gloss to match window)
Brackets (+ appropriate mounting hardware)
First, there was cutting and sanding and more cutting and more sanding. This is the part that made me realize Plan A was impossible. I eventually just cut off a few millimeters from each end. Very glad to have the Trio!
Then there was priming. And waiting. And priming some more.
Between my layers of primer I filled some of the imperfections in the wood and sanded the coats. Eventually I got down to the final coat. I didn't want to see too many brush strokes on the final layer so I used my favorite hobby paint brush- a 2 inch, angled brush with a short handle.
I let them sit for a few days to properly dry and then attached each plank with pelican brackets. I'm still not 100% sure they were the right choice, but they're up and installed so I'm not going to fuss over it. My main complaint is that the shelves still don't feel entirely level no matter how tightly I attach the brackets. On the bright side, I like how they look, they came with awesome drywall anchors and they don't seem to be falling off the wall any time soon.
Same wall, same paint color, poor photography skills -_-
Tah-dah! Simple shelves! Easy to do (if not a little tedious) and a big
improvement for the space. I may be taking the shelves down temporarily
to paint the wall behind them so the contents are a little haphazard.
As of this evening, my pretty little nook shelf is holding a bunch of books, a plastic tub of crafting supplies, a half-made figurine, my stash of paper, embroidery floss, some photos, and a small piece of luggage. I'm a far cry from casually beautiful shelf arrangements :P
