One Room Challenge: Week 7 - Floating Shelves
Hello and welcome to the blog!
It’s week 7 of the One Room Challenge. We’re just one week away from the big reveal! Last week I hit a few snags with the floating shelves, and I spent most of this week getting them to where they are now. So let’s get into it.
I had already mapped out the shelf layout on the wall the week before, so I lined up the floating shelf brackets with the laser level to help install them evenly. Every bracket was installed with one screw in a stud and one screw in a drywall anchor for maximum strength. I used four brackets per shelf.
For the shelves, I used 2 x 6 pine, and each shelf is 6 feet long. There is approximately 13’’ between each shelf. I put the shelves on top of the installed brackets to mark where I needed to drill holes. I used a DrillBlock to drill my holes straight; this was VERY helpful. I don’t think I could have done this project without it. I drilled the holes in the middle of the board for the first shelf, which resulted in the brackets showing when I mounted the shelf on the wall. I corrected this issue for the remaining shelves by drilling the holes 1’’ from the top of the board (where you need to drill the holes will differ depending on the type of bracket you buy). To make the brackets that were showing less noticeable, I painted them the same color as the wall, and they disappeared!
Choosing the stain for the shelves was more difficult than anticipated. The pine boards weren’t taking any of the oil stains I tried. I tried seven different stains and none of them were even remotely close to acceptable. I’m still not sure why these boards weren’t taking stain well; it’s not a problem I’ve ever had with pine before. As a last-ditch effort, I decided to try a gel stain, which worked beautifully! The final stain color is Minwax Chestnut Gel Stain. It is a bit darker than I originally wanted, but it matches our furniture well, and it’s a nice rich color. I’m happy with how it turned out!
If you remember my inspiration shelves, they have dowels that go through the shelves as a decorative element (below right). To get this kind of look, I cut 3/4’’ dowels to fit in between each shelf. It really dresses up the shelves; I love it! Of course, there are still a few things I need to do for these shelves to be complete; put a clear coat on the shelves, secure the dowels in place, and decorate, but they finally look like I wanted!
Between now and next week, I need to finish painting the tile grout, install baseboards, hang the light fixture, and decorate. Here’s hoping I get everything done in time! If you don’t already, give me a follow on Instagram. Thanks for reading; see you next week for the dining room reveal!