Easiest Shelves Ever! – Heels and a Hammer

Easiest Shelves EVER!

Perusing Pinterest I came across the perfect shelving solution to our big-long wall problem. Here is the link to my (P)inspiration: http://www.tysonandjanessaparker.blogspot.com/2013/10/diy-picture-ledges.html – You’ll notice in her directions she does say that you should purchase a higher grade wood to have less sanding and warping, in other words less headaches! I heeded this advice and it made my job so easy!

Before shot~Boring wall… and don’t mind the stingray!

Material Girl~
Materials you’ll need to make 2 • 3′ shelves and 2 • 5′ shelves (2 • 8′ shelves cut down) is as follows:

Purchased Select Pine Board from Home Depot

2 • 1″ x 2″ x 8′ boards for front lip

2 • 1″ x 3″ x 8′ board for bottom

2 • 1″ x 4″ x 8′ board for back

nail gun

paintable caulk

paint

screws

level

stud finder

screwdriver and necessary bits

Steps for Production:

Cut all pieces down at a 3′ mark. Now you’ll have a 3′ piece and a 5′ piece of each width of wood. Nail the 3″ strip to the 4″ strip making an L shape (back and bottom).Then nail the front 2″ strip to the assembled “L” piece for a front lip. This will secure your items on the shelf.

This is what it will look like:

one of these is different than the others… lol

Next step is to caulk over the indents from the nail gun. Once this has dried I lightly sand and paint white for a smooth finish. I did two coats on the tops and sides in one day with about an hour in between for drying time. The next day I painted two coats on the bottoms, again with about an hour in between for drying time.
Literal time frame for this project was 3 days, however one could complete it in the same day if you had the time. I did the cutting and assembly on day one (Wednesday after work). Day two I sanded and painted (Thursday after work). Day three I finished up by painting the bottoms and hung (Friday after work).
That’s it!Hang it Man~
After everything was painted I then went to the wall where it would be installed and roughly drew marks where I wanted them. I held the shelf up to the wall and asked my hubster what he thought of the placement. Once we had good placement, (distance from the top and bottom of the T.V. with enough space in the middle for the art pieces) I took our 6′ level and drew a straight line. On that line I marked out my studs using my stud finder. Then I held up my shelves to the wall and drew a faint mark at each point that there would be a stud and pre-drilled a hole. Then I just started the screws in their hole till they were flush with the backside of the shelves, then held it up and simply screwed it in.

Once the shelves were all up I took a small paint brush and the same white paint and painted over the screws. Contrary to my P’inspiration link, I did this because I didn’t put a ton of art on the shelves and you would be able to see the screws.

Viola!

Here is the finished product! I think this was the easiest shelf project that I’ve ever done and pretty cheap! Total project cost: $26.62 (not including tax). This cost is just for the wood. We had all other materials necessary to complete this cool project!

Panned out for you! (don’t mind the clutter after all, we do live here 😉

It is so inexpensive and adds an outstanding look!

Have fun with your DIY project and don’t be afraid to be creative!

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