Way back when we were rushing to get the slider done (and dyeing drapes, upholstering the cornice, and doing the fireplace) in preparation for hosting wine night, I was also trying to get shelves up in the dining room. Needless to say that did not get done in time but I did start the process and finish it about 5 months later! I wanted to put two shelves above a vintage buffet I picked up and display a bunch of my serve where, below is what the area looked like before the shelves.
First I looked around for the brackets and decided to go with some fairly inexpensive ones from home depot. I had seen some other styles I liked better but didn’t feel like dropping a ton of cash on them. I knew I wanted a distressed look so I started by staining them a deep walnut color and then painting them in old white chalk paint.
The distressing part was a bit of a process and took me a while to figure out I wanted. First I used sand paper (instead of a sponge like I normally do) to see the dark color under the old white. But I thought the brown wasn’t that rich looking because sanding lightened it up… and where I took the color off I thought it looked very spotted and not like natural distressing. So then I decided I didn’t like the old white and used the stain again to darken the paint… which I didn’t like either. Below is a comparison of the two, the stained one actually looks more yellow/green because of the lighting but it was really a tan color.
So then I painted them all in old white again and then distressed using a sponge like I normally and I liked the results a lot more this time around! There are actually 3 layers of color going on and I played around with having more or less show through in different areas. No wonder it took me 5 months to get it done!
On one of my “treasure hunts” I also fond a great reclaimed beam to use for the shelves. Time for the carpenter to cut it to size (in between finishing the deck stairs and other last minute details).
Then it was finally time to install everything!! First up was laying out the spacing for how high above the buffet they should go, then the distance between the shelves, and of course making sure everything is centered (especially b/c Mace wanted to hit a stud so the weight of the beam AND all the stuff I was putting on it would hold).
Then time to break out the drill and pre-drill the holes! It was a team effort to get this done and two sets of hands was very helpful.
And of course you’ve got to make sure everything is level!
Mace also screwed the brackets into the bottom of the shelves so everything is super secure. And here’s the final product!! I was so happy that I could finally unpack some of my serve ware and it has been very useful to have things out and easy to grab. It also felt so good to have this finally off the list, especially since we were working on the mirror, bathroom shelf, and vanity during the same time… and did I mention the deck too. Man that was a super busy time for us!!
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