Jul 19

Jul 19 The Shelves

These shelves were a diamond in the garage sale rough. For just $10, they were a steal alongside the bistro patio set and the telephone tables when I first moved to Tremont in 2012. Sadly, they sat in my basement waiting for a plan for the next 6 years. (BTW, it’s this type of behavior that has earned me “project hoarder” status from my husband.)

Job #1: Clean up

2012 when I purchased these for $10

Finally, I had an idea as I looked at our living room wall. This wall is home to the dresser I previously turned into an entertainment center, but we still needed storage in our small little apartment and this wall needed just a bit more design interest. I wanted to keep the entertainment center uncluttered, but also had photos in frames, books a-plenty, gizmos and gadgets galore… (are you hearing Ariel singing yet?) The wall needed some shelves. Lucky for me, I still had these beauties on hand. They just needed some modernization.

I decided to get rid of the backing on this set altogether. Those, along with the stain were holding these shelves back in outdated style.

Setting those aside, I sanded the shelves down with an electric palm sander. I loved all the imperfections in the wood, like what was clearly a nail that bent sideways into it and left some stain on those areas to add emphasis. With a lighter wood all it needed was some new brackets. Joe and I found some simple black brackets at Home Depot. They were the perfect style to compliment the wood and our white furniture, and they were super cheap!

You’ll notice we still have the black mirror in an awkward spot. That is purely thanks to our lovable cat, Maple. She likes to perch her front paws on the ledge, look back at us on the couch in the mirror, meow to get our attention and then wait for us to call her over. Needless to say our cats drive some decor decisions in this house, good and bad.

I like to switch things up every once in a while so, of course, I’ve restyled this wall several times since the shelves were done. They now house some of our wedding memorabilia (candelsticks, framed photo, etc.) and a collection of books grouped by color. This high setting also saves my books from the cats who like to chew on book corners. I promise they are fed plenty. Poor books.

Another update we’ve made is the addition of our little fitness corner on the left. Thanks to COVID-19 we needed to squeeze some home equipment in our tiny living space. But do you see something missing on the right side?? Hint hint - an antique furniture project update coming soon!