How to DIY a Wood Shelf - Kuball's Khaos

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INSIDE: COME LEARN HOW TO DIY A WOOD SHELF WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK

Wire shelves suck! But all builders use them….everywhere. To replace them takes a small fortune. So when I decided to take the first step in ridding my house of these pesky things, I had to find the right replacement. We started with a DIY wood shelf in the laundry room.

I took to Pinterest, of course, and found this picture. We immediately fell in love!

I don’t have the original source….sorry about that. I’m not trying to steal anyone’s hard work.

Sometimes, figuring out where to start is the hardest part for me….how about you?

Hmmmmm, measuring the room is important!

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That’s where I’ll start….

I used a measuring tape to measure from wall to wall. Mine was 92″ so when I went to Home Depot I knew exactly what to ask for. Of course, they are the experts so they made some recommendations based on what I was building. I bought a 12″ x 90″ x 1″ inch piece of pine. When I got home, I realized that it was actually a 94″ piece of wood. No big deal, Handy Man Kris made an additional cut for me (but Home Depot can do it for you, if you need it).

While I was at The Home Depot, I also picked up the pieces I wanted to hang the shelf from.

Here is what I bought:

While I was there, I decided to grab my wood stain.

Oh so pretty, so pretty and whitty…..

“Anger Management” if you haven’t seen this….you are missing out!

I went with a Mission Oak stain plus poly in satin, hopefully this saves me a step. We loved the way Mission Oak looked on the display….so we grabbed a quart. I also needed to grab a stain brush, I’ve never stained anything (there I said it).

I’m actually really spoiled. I ask my husband to do something handy and he does it for me. This is the first time I attempted something like this on my own. He did help me (A LOT)!! But he also taught me a lot!

Now that I have all my supplies, I got to work. Deep breath – I can do this!

Stain

I followed the directions on the stain. It did not recommend sanding first so….I didn’t. I did test out the stain before I brushed it on the whole piece. When I was happy that I chose the right stain, I continued, using long brush strokes and NOT going back over my work.

After about 6 hours, I flipped the board and stained the other side. I let this dry overnight. The next morning, I got out the handy sander and using 220 grit, I did a light sanding of all sides. I wiped the sand dust off and began staining again.

I was happy with the color after the second coat but I had left some stain drips so I had to sand again. Once I sanded it, I actually liked the way it looked better. I decided I didn’t want to do another coat and was willing to take my chances on the poly.

Hang the iron pipes

Kris had to help me with this one. I have stated on numerous occasions that I am NOT good with power tools. OR MATH!

So we measured and did some math….let’s be clear….Kris did the math. Once we decided where the flanges should be hung, we used a stud finder to determine if we needed the anchors or not. Anything that wasn’t going into a stud, got an anchor.

We marked the top hole of the flange, hammered in the anchors, and got drilling! After the flanges were hung, we twisted the pipes in place and screwed the caps on loosely.

We placed the board on the pipes and screwed the caps on tighter. The caps held the board in place nicely. (I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures.)