This week seems to have flown by especially since one of my friends from home was visiting until yesterday! I will be posting a few photos from her visit tomorrow! A few weeks ago Matt and I made these shelves, they were super easy to make and didn't take all that long either!
Since moving into my house I have realized that 1) there isn't actually that much room and 2) there isn't very much horizontal storage room either. To solve this problem I have been trying to figure out a way to add shelves and utilize space. I have also been wanting to get a few larger house plants that would add some green to my home, especially since we are entering the cold, rainy season in Portland. My house is heated using radiators and they are placed right in front of the two windows in the living and dining rooms. These windows would be the perfect place to put the plants that I have been dreaming of. Unfortunately the window sills aren't wide enough to hold plant pots and since the radiators are right in front of the windows I can't put a shelf or a table in front of the windows either. After a lot of pinteresting I found a picture of a home that had built a shelf above the radiator, in the picture it looked like a pretty simple project so Matt and I decided to give it a try!
You will need:
2 brackets per shelf (I made two shelves so I needed four)
4 3/4 inch screws per shelf
4 screws that will anchor it into the wall (since I have plaster walls I had to use special screws; usually at home improvement places that have a display that will tell you which type of screw to get for each type of wall depending on how much weight you think the screw will need to hold. I think I got screws that can hold up to 80 pounds)
Polyurethane
Foam brushes (one for each coat of polyurethane you are planning on using)
Sand paper
1 wooden board (I got one that still had some bark on the outside and it was 10 inches wide and ~50 inches long)
How to make:
1: We sanded down the boards because they were pretty rough.
2: Once they were smooth we applied our first layer of polyurethane. Then let it dry for 4 hours.
3: We then sanded the board and applied a second coat and let that dry for 4 hours. (We did a total of 3 coats.)
4: We attached the brackets to the boards first since we though it might be difficult to attach the board to the brackets after screwing the brackets to the wall by the radiators.
5: Then we brought them inside and pre drilled the holes in the walls for the brackets.
6: Finally we attached the shelves to the wall. Ta-da!
Over all the project took a few days since we had to let the polyurethane dry between each coat, but the actual hands-on time was minimal. I am super happy with the results and now I want to make a few more of these shelves for the other radiators in my house! Also now that I have my shelves its time to go plant shopping (another one of my favorite hobbies).
xx-C
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