several months ago, one of our neighbors was tossing out a bunch of old garage shelves & I knew they would make for a fabulous shelving system in our kitchen on my kind of budget. we have this bare wall in our kitchen that I really wished the builders would have put a cabinet on. but I'm sure it was their idea to use that space as a dining nook. us not so much.
the boards sat & sat until I guess my Joanna Gaines motivation kicked in. then it was a time for an overhaul. I originally planned on completely stripped the paint off and giving them a good stain, but once I broke the sander out, I changed my mind.
using a very coarse grit paper, I power sanded the boards removing some of the paint giving it a nice distressed look. once I sanded the boards to their desired look, I got clean cloth to remove all the grit, dust and debris for a smooth surface. once the boards were free of grit, I sealed the shelves with deco art creme wax - make sure to get the clear wax - it's the one with the white label.
using a clean soft cloth, rub the creme wax all over the surfaces - a little goes a long way. dry time is about 3 hours or so. it really just ensures the seal is nice and complete.
using a 3/4" wood screw, attached the shelf brackets to the under side of the shelf - 2 brackets for each shelf - one on each end. I only found the style I wanted in white, so black spray became my best friend on Sunday.
after attaching the brackets on the shelf, line up on your wall in your desired location & mark your holes - be sure your shelves are level when marking!! drill wall anchors into your premarked wall locations - I used 75 lb grade ones.
once your anchors are set, screw your shelf into place.
decorate and enjoy.
project cost breakdown:
-shelves - free, upcycled
-sandpaper - free, had on hand
-decoart creme wax - $12 for 8 oz container - used my 40% coupon at HL, so it was $7 - I'll have this jar for a long while
-shelf brackets - $20 for all 4
-black spray paint - free, had on hand
-screws to attach to shelf - $4 for pack of 100
-wall anchors - free, had on hand
you can find cheaper shelf brackets... but I wanted a specific style and well, yeah $20 was what I had to settle on.
Love this! I think I'm going to try something similar later this month. I don't have up cycled shelves, do you think planks from Home Depot would work - just paint and distress like you did?
ReplyDeletethat should work.. using new would you won't have dark wood underneath but that's ok. once you paint it white, I'd let it sit for a few days to cure before putting a sander on it.
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