So, I’m not sure if you are new here, or a longtime reader…but I don’t build things. I’m crafty, yes, but not when it comes to using drills or screws or wood, outside of a basic paint job upcycle.
It is a skill I’ve been meaning to learn, but up until now, nope. So even though this was a simple project, I was still pretty nervous about my first time. (And all that that implies.)
These six pieces of wood were part of the delivery packaging of our new dishwasher a few months ago:
So obviously there was no way I was going to let perfectly good pieces of wood go to the dumpster, right? I had a number of ideas on how to use them, but with so many projects (and work, and kids, and family, and general mayhem) in my brain, I just set them aside until I decided on one.
After the umpteenth time stepping on J’s diecast cars and planes in his room, I made the decision.
Anyone remember the toy car rail I made for J from Ikea ledges when we lived with my mom?
I had sort of re-done that in the new house, but with a long grey ledge I bought at SmartFurniture.com. We left the existing ledge and Book Nook at my mom’s for sleepovers.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, for J anyway), his loving aunts/uncles/nana/etc had continued to help him grow his collection. With Cars, Cars 2, Planes, and Planes: Fire & Rescue, he had a LOT of new character cars and planes to store. The one shelf was not cutting it.
The long shelf from Smart Furniture cost about $35; that’s not a ton of money to a lot of people, but I really hated spending it on another single item. Even the Ikea ones I used originally didn’t tempt me, since they were shorter than I wanted. The idea of DIY keeps me feeling guilty anytime I buy something that technically I could probably make myself for less $$. (Unless of course the time and skill involved are insane. Then I trust the pros.)
So now I knew what I was going to do with my wood; I just had to do it.
DIY Picture Ledges, here I come!
I bought 3″ wood screws in order to fasten two slats together to make the base for my shelf. All the pieces were of uniform size, and I planned on a very basic concept; screw two together and slap a back on them. Two shelves from six slats.
My hubby isn’t crazy great at woodworking, but he knows more than I do. Thanks to him, I pre-drilled the holes for my wood screws to attach two boards for the base. My moronic self would have learned the hard way not to try to just drill a screw in on its own. Cuz that’s how I would have done it. True story.
I mostly did ok, but I did end up splitting the board, as you can see. I was only slightly off center on the screw, but I honestly (cross my heart!) blame the board for most of this. They weren’t exactly high quality slats, but they were free!
Good thing it was on the bottom! A little sanding helped out, and the boards needed that overall anyway. LOTS of splinters overall, and I didn’t want that issue with J grabbing cars and planes off them constantly.
Once they were sanded down, I painted them grey to match his existing shelf. I still had some of the sample grey paint leftover from another project, so that did the trick. After painting, I coated the shelves in Triple Thick by Decoart to help avoid any splinters I might have missed.
In a moment of nostalgia, I recreated the “Jameson’s Garage” sign for above the shelving.
In another moment of Superwoman-ness (well, ok, by my standards. I TOLD YOU, I don’t build things), I hung the shelves myself. Me. All by my onesies. With a drill and anchors, no less. RAWR.
Ok, I’m a little lame, and probably an insult to feminism, but hey, I’m honest! 😉
So, how did I do??
For those of you paying attention, I recreated the Cars Wall Art that still hangs in J’s old room at his Nana’s house. This time I skipped the canvas and vinyl and painted them directly onto 12 x 12 wood canvas. I did use the vinyl cuts from my Disney Pixar Cricut Cartridge for stencils – I’m not that talented that I could do it freehand.
What new technique or task have you taken on recently?
I love linking up at these parties!
What a great idea and tutorial to follow. I’ll be featuring this tonight at Merry Monday.
How much weight can these shelves hold?
My mother makes framed stained glass that is 30″ wide and 33″ long .
This piece weighs about 20lbs….
She wants to have hold this on the wall “as brackets ” one on bottom and one on top over lapping the 1 1/2 “thick frame . I know i would have to put holes in the back board so I could but large anchor screws in to wall. Would a ledge that is made from solid board be stronger? Or do you know where I could buy that form of bracket?