Since discovering the potential of wasted behind-the-door space in Emma's room, I couldn't wait to put some up in Ethan's room. Before we started moving things around in here, everything had a low, horizontal feel. Nothing drew your eyes up. But with these shelves, we get vertical storage, a graphic stripey look, and a use for that wasted space. I love them!!
All 5 shelves only used 6 pieces of wood:
2 1x2's
2 1x4's
2 1x6's
I cut piece into 30-inch lengths. The 1x6 was the flat part of the shelf, so that's where I drilled all the pocket holes. Actually, since I was getting the hang of things, I let Ethan drill most of the holes (with my help) and he also set all the screws, and helped me drive them in. The actual building of the shelves took less than an hour.
For paint, we picked Behr's Havasu. I took a gamble and tried to paint all of the shelves with just one $3 sample pot. We didn't run out, but we got close! So, one sample pot will paint 5 30-inch ledge shelves. As you can see above, Emma and Ethan both got in on the painting step. They are pretty good at painting, so all I had to do was go back and fill in the gaps. The boys room has kind of a rustic element, so it didn't matter if their brush strokes weren't all perfect.
We hung the bottom shelf 18 inches from the baseboard, with 10 1/2 inches between each of the other shelves.
One thing that I would change if I did this again, is the quality of wood I chose. I bought the roughest, cheapest wood, because I knew the texture of the would be fine in this room. I made sure the boards were straight along the length, but I didn't see that one of the 1x4s was slightly curved, like a parenthesis. So, depending on which way I screwed them together, the shelves are either tilting slightly down or slightly up. Oops. It doesn't affect the use of the shelves, and you can really only tell from the side, but I probably won't buy that kind of wood again. Live and learn.
I'm sure the tilt of the shelves won't show once I get the curtains up. Maybe that will light a fire under me enough to get working on them!
That bottom shelf is irresistible to Esther, so I filled it with her own toys and books. She empties it at least once a day, but she can also pick them up herself, so it works.
Also, the height of that bottom shelf makes for excellent motorcycle storage.
Every little boy needs a place to display treasures and half-finished lego projects, right? I'm sure the items on the shelves will change regularly, but I don't mind. I just hope no one gets the idea to climb them like a ladder, Kevin McAllister style. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't survive that.
::
Building, painting, or organizing anything this week? Whatcha been up to?
These shelves were inspired by Ana White's ten-dollar ledges, and you can find the directions here.
