A couple months ago my husband and I bought our first house! It’s been a whirlwind the last couple months but our home is finally starting to come together! It’s been so much fun to put my personal touch on everything and making it our own! As soon as I saw this blank wall in our dining room I knew I wanted floating shelves! Something I could personalize throughout all the seasons of our lives and something that if I got bored with I could easily change it up without putting a ton of nail holes in the wall.
I went on amazon first to see how much a couple shelves could be and was shocked to realize that two 5 foot shelves would cost me over 60 dollars. We just bought a house I didn’t want to go into more debt by decorating it! Thankfully I told my sister my idea and she remembered that one of her really good friends made some shelves for under $20 bucks, she did some digging and found the article from this website: shanty-2-chic.com
A couple of modifications later and a few trips to bomgaars and my husband and I ended up making these shelves for just under $25. Shant-2-Chic uses wood glue for putting the shelves together; we wanted to make them a little more sturdy so we added some more screws for security. (That’s why ours cost over $20 and hers were under $20)
What you’re going to need:
2- 1X4’s and 1 – 1X2’s For Each Shelf
Wood Glue
And some Screws! That’s it!
We went to our nearest lumber supply store in town and just had someone cut the wood for us! We got enough to make two 5 foot shelves. They also had wood glue and I highly recommend going with Gorilla Glue.
We got home, sanded the wood a little, I painted mine white but you could easily stain and varnish yours. I had white paints already on hand so I didn’t add that into the cost. We started by screwing our first 1X4 into the back of the other 1X4, then glued the 1X2 onto the front of the first 1X4. Sound Confusing? Here’s a picture for reference!
After we let the glue dry for roughly 12-24 hours it was time to hang!! We did use a stud finder and some wall anchors just for safety. I can’t stress enough that you definitely want to screw into the studs! These shelves are heavy and they will be holding a lot!
I honestly just had my hubby hold them to decide how far apart I wanted them but we made sure they were both in the middle of the wall! I love how they turned out and I love them even more for being so affordable!! I will definitely be making more in the future!!! I would love to see yours! Make sure to send me a pic if you do!!!