We have been in this rental home for almost 5 months, and I finally feel like things are finding their places in our home. My visions are coming alive, and it feels so great to make those dreams reality. We will probably be in this home for the next couple of years at least. So I’m really trying to make it home!
When I came to tour this little town home there were three things I loved – the natural light, the wood floors, and the kitchen space. I loved the gray cabinets, and I knew immediately that I wanted to put some open shelves in the space above the sink.
When we were looking for the studs we found that they weren’t centered with the space between the cabinets. So, that meant we weren’t going to be able to have any cute brackets showing. It also meant that any floating shelf kits that I bought wouldn’t line up with the studs either. This posed a problem because I definitely wanted these shelves to hold some weight – that way I could decorate with dishes, plants, etc. It also measured around 32 inches, and most of the shelf kits I could find were 24 or 36 inches.
Enter DIY floating shelves. You guys, can I just say – I just love Pinterest! And I love the people who post things on it even more. Especially the DIYers. Like how do people come up with these awesome ideas? I’ll never know. Anyway, I found tons of different tutorials for creating your own floating shelves, but a lot of them required that you have your own wood workshop, or at least a table saw. Neither of which we are fortunate enough to own. In the end we decided to go the simplest route I could find. Two boards. Four metal brackets. A stud finder. And a drill with specific sized drill bits. That’s all we realy needed.
We just went to home depot and got the wood we wanted and had them cut the size we needed to form two boards for the shelves. Then we measured and marked where everything needed to be with the stud finder, and we used a 1/2 inch drill bit to drill the holes into the board for the metal brackets to slide onto. It was so nice having them up there I almost forgot that I still needed to stain the wood.
I had some dark walnut stain on hand that I planned to use. But when I got it out it was a lot darker than I was imagining. Helpful tip: use a paint stir stick to test the color of the stain. So I ran down to our local hardware store and after about 20 minutes of mauling over all the choices, I decided to go with Early American. It was exactly what I wanted! I’ve seen some other tutorials of creating your own stains with vinegar and such, and I really wanted to try them, but I don’t even have any vinegar on hand right now. So I figured I might as well grab some stain ready to go. I’m so happy with the result! I’ll give you more details on how we did it below.
So here’s a photo of the space before.
And here’s a few photos after we got them up! Featuring my little. He was super interested in what mommy and daddy were doing, and wanted to help with everything!
And here they are after being stained! I love them!
So here’s how I did it.
What you will need:
Wood cut to your size and number of shelves (we used pine and got them from home depot)
Metal shelf brackets (we used these from Amazon)
Drill and drill bit the size of the metal bracket (ours was 1/2 inch diameter)
Stud Finder
Sander or sanding blocks
Stain of your choice
How I did it:
Before you begin, it’s important to test your walls and find the studs, as well as make sure you won’t be drilling into any electric or pipe lines or anything like that. You can use a stud finder for this. Mark where your studs begin on each side. It’s a very small space, so it’s important to know where you need to put your screws.
Once you’ve got all your supplies we began by sanding down the ends of the boards to help them slide smoothly in between the cabinets.
Next, we used a level to make sure the boards were level on the wall and marked with pencil where they would be placed. Then we did all of the measuring. And bear with me because this part is hard to put into words. We lined those marks from the shelf placement up with the marks from the studs. Once everything was in place and ready to go we measured where the holes for the brackets would need to be drilled in the wood. We made marks on the wood and the walls in pencil.
Next we hung the brackets into the studs in the wall with the screws that came with it. After that we made sure everything was still lining up before we drilled the holes into the wood. We basically double and triple checked everything this entire project to make sure we didn’t screw anything up. Ha ha.
Next we drilled the holes in the wood and placed them onto the metal brackets. Perfect fit! They slide right on.
I pulled them down and stained them with the Minwax stain. You can use a brush like I did, or an old cloth. You will apply the stain and then wipe it away to blend it in. It dries fairly quickly too. I just did one coat but I’m sure you could do multiple if you want it to be darker. I didn’t apply any top coat or poly, but it’s definitely a good idea since these are in the kitchen. I might do it later.
And that’s it! You have two floating shelves! Super easy. The hardest part is just making sure everything is lined up, but as long as you measure everything out and plan ahead, you should be fine! Here’s some photos of how I’ve styled them so far. I can’t wait to play around with them. And I’ve cleared out some cabinet space too! Win win!
I’d love to hear what you all think in the comments!
Talk soon,
xoxo, Britny