Tuesday, March 27, 2012

DIY Picture Ledge Shelves

The other day when I was at Ikea, I planned on buying several of the RIBBA picture ledge shelves.

After taking a closer look though, I knew that I could make them myself much cheaper.   I want to use these to display some of Mateo's books in the nursery.  The Ikea's shelf was 21" and cost $9.99.
I wanted 24".

I went to Lowe's and bought the following:
2- 8' 1x4
1- 8' 1x2
Lowes cut them for me [at no charge] into 2' pieces, which gave me enough to make 4 shelves.
This cost me $11.

You will also need some wood glue, hammer and finishing nails. (I already had these at home)

Each shelf will use two of the 1x4's and one 1x2.  The wider 2 pieces are the back and bottom of the shelf and the 1x2 is the front piece.

Here is the side view.

I literally whipped these up in 15 minutes.

After they were glued and nailed together, I gave them a good sanding and wiped them clean with a damp cloth.  They were ready to paint!

I had a gallon of oil-based primer on hand, so I gave them all a quick coat with a foam brush.  After that dried, I put three coats of Valspar's "White Lacquer" spray paint.
I have to say they turned out pretty awesome!

To hang the shelves we used two screws on the back piece and added the plastic anchors.  They are super strong.  We centered them between the window and the corner and made sure little hands would be able to reach the lowest shelf.  Four shelves hold a lot of books, but Mateo has even more.  These were so easy, I may have to make more.   A longer one would be great for artwork and oooh, maybe a certain sand collection?!

So there you have it, another piece of the nursery comes together.  The fluffy chandelier, striped ceiling, and turquoise armoire are just a few of the other projects in this nursery design out.  

It's getting there, slowly but surely.

If you were considering buying picture ledges...DON'T!  You can do this! 

I'm partying over at:
savvy southern style
homemaker on a dime
blah 2 beautiful
my uncommon slice of suburbia
someday crafts 
diy by design
Creation corner 
Finding Fabulous 
Simple Home Life
my repurposed life
Common Ground

19 comments:

  1. awesome- come over and lets do this at our house now!

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  2. Love the look of yours so much better! I've also seen these made using recycled pallets. Happy Wednesday!

    Chandra
    astylishlittlelady.blogspot.com

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  3. What a cute space. Love the shelves! I need to do something quick for my daughter's room. Her books are taking over!

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  4. That is awesome! They look perfect and I love that it was an easy DIY! I caught a glimps of that ceiling and light fixture too....oh my goodness, that is going to be one awesome reading nook!!!

    Thanks for linking it up at Creatively Living!
    --Katie

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  5. What a great way to store and display the books! You did a great job Cindy.
    thanks for sharing @ catch as catch can!
    gail

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  6. Can you share how you then attached them to the wall? Looks beautiful!

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  7. Hi brown betty! to attach the shelves to the wall we just used two screws with the plastic anchors. they are super strong. the bottom shelf is low enough for my son to reach and he has been hanging on it:)

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    Replies
    1. Hello, You should attach a picture of how you put the plastic anchors.

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  8. Might have to try this...I've been wanting to use IKEA's Bekvam spice racks for shelves since I saw it all over Pinterest, and they're $3.99 each...but for some reason, they don't sell them at the Atlanta store.

    P.S. I pinned this. :)

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  9. I love this idea! I want to try it, but I'm still not clear on how you mounted them to the wall. Did you screw straight through the shelves into the wall?

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  10. Hi Roxane
    That is exactly what I did to mount them, so that was unclear. once the books
    are on the shelves you can't see the screws anyway, but you can putty and paint over them for a seamless finish:)
    Thanks for stopping by!

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  11. Hi Cindy, I love your idea and plan to use it for my son's room. When you attached the front piece, did you use wood's glue and a few finishing nails or just wood's glue?

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  12. I used finishing nails on the front too, sometimes the wood doesnt lay exactly flush, so i thought i better secure with nails. good thing i did too because my son likes to pull up on these. they surprisingly sturdy! sorry that was unclear

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  13. What size are the screws you used?

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  14. Hi Cindy, I am confused about the nails on the front piece. Did you use putty or paint over them, as I don't see where you placed them?

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  15. Im also unsure of which pieces were glue only, and which piece (s) the nails were used? Thanks so much!

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  16. After painting the shelves I added 2 screws through the back panel into the wall. you could putty and paint them, but since there are always books there I just left them. I am not sure of the size screws now, but you can see the size of the finishing nails and that they were pounded in the front small panel (lip) of the shelves after gluing. again, i just painted right over them, but putty would make a seamless look. hope this helps.

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Hola!
I enjoy reading your comments. Thanks for stopping by Viva Cindy!

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