School Room Makeover Part 1 OR How to Build Floating Shelves

You will NOT believe what I have been doing.

Since James decided that we have to wait for two weeks to build the deck around the pool, I started another project.  Of course.  If I didn’t have a project going, then I wouldn’t be me.  That’s what you love about me, right?  No?  Oh, ok, well then maybe you shouldn’t read this.

I know that a lot of you like to restore old furniture….and I do too.  But because of the size of our family and because we homeschool we often need a custom piece.  So I have gotten more into building my own furniture.  And that’s what I’ve been doing this week.  Hooray!  Are you surprised?  Again no?  Hmmmm…maybe I am getting to be too predictable.

Like many homeschoolers, my dining room is my school room.  I really want it to look nice and uncluttered, but school supplies and books and maps and computers are hard to work with.

Here’s what the dining room/school room looked like yesterday morning….

We cleared it all out and set up a workshop on the back patio.

In this post I will focus on the floating shelves I made.  I have seen them around in stores, but they are always too contemporary for me.  However I really like the clean lines and I am trying to simplify, so the idea of no brackets appealed to me.  I decided that I could make my own.  That way they could be exactly the size I want, be the cottage style that I love but still have a bit of a modern edge.

First I cut some 2×2’s into the sizes I needed to make the support for the shelf.  The longer boards need to be about 5″ shorter than the final width of the shelf and the short ones need to be about 3″ shorter than the desired depth of the shelf.

Then we (I should say we because the kids helped me) attached the short boards to the longer boards using brackets.

We attached them to the wall using 3″ screws and made sure we went into at least 2 studs.

Then I built the shelf, which is a box that slips over the support on the wall.  The top and bottom are luann (I can’t figure out how to spell that…does anyone know?).  The front and sides are crown molding (OK, again…is it molding or moulding?).

We used wood glue and brad nails to attach it all together.  It was tedious, but it is sturdy in the end.

After the crown was all attached we put the top piece on (which we measured after we had the bottom all put together) and we added some wood blocks inside to give it support.

If you decide to make these, be sure you put the little support blocks at least 2″ in so they don’t get in the way of the wall support piece.

Then caulk, paint, and slip the boxes onto the wall support.  A few small screws in the top will hold the box onto the wall support.

The walls in this old house are so wavy that I had to caulk where the shelf meets the wall.

I am so pleased with how they turned out.

I have collected some art work over the years and I haven’t had a place to hang it for a long time.  While this spot will be our new and improved school desk, it will also be a buffet for when we have company for dinner.  So I liked the idea of combining our favorite Lamplighter books with my white pitcher collection.  Is it a school room?  Is it a dining room?  Subtle, huh?

Shells spilling out of my white pitcher.  The unexpected makes me happy.

Here’s a sneak peek at the finished work.  You can see my new school desk/buffet.  I’ll show you how we made that in my post titled, “Part 2 OR How to Give Yourself a Hernia Lifting This Thing.”.  I’m thinking of painting all of the chairs white, they need unifying.  What do you think?  I could slip cover the king and queen chairs at the ends of the table.  I’m the queen, but you know that.

Part three will show you the other side of the room.  I will title that post, “Part 3 or How to Exhaust Yourself in Three Days.”

Updated: Part 2

Linking to:

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple

Style Feature Saturday @ Perfectly Imperfect

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tater Tots and Jello

Fresh Coat Fridays @ Life in the Fun Lane