Our Kitchen Shelf, And How Tom Made It!
It’s done! Well.. kinda. Still needs to be painted- but its CLOSE!
We finally have the kitchen shelf up, and to say that I am excited is an understatement! I had this vision for the longest time, after switching up the design of the kitchen, and it has been a long time coming! I ask myself what took us so long and the answer is well… things took priority. Like the floors, bonus room, electrical, and all of the other things we had to do first! Ha!
Lets take a little look at what we planned for. As a reminder, we are doing a DIY method for the epoxy countertops and backsplash, hopefully in the next week or so. We really want to renovate this kitchen more fully down the road, but its just not in the budget right now. *sigh*.. So we are going to work with what we have, and hand paint the marble on MDF to get the same affect. It could totally be a DIY fail and crash nd burn- but we are going to try it!
We are also make-shifting the island we have now, so don’t pay too much attention to the island in the rendering. That is the “goal” one day. But anyways, back to why we are here. The shelf!
The shelf is a total of 13 feet LONG. It is BIG length of wall, and needed to be able to accommodate a LOT of heavy glass dishware. Its my love language, ok? I have a lot of it.
We researched a bunch of different ways to do this. It was a bit tricky because I for sure did not want to have any shower brackets under the shelf. If that is your jam- go for it. But it wasn’t the seamless look I am going for in here. I took it to instagram and Pinterest in hopes for some leads on how to execute something so long. I was worried with the weight that this might be a nearly impossible task! I didn’t find much on there describing any specific method they used, unfortunately. But when I saw Anastasia’s kitchen shelves she had built here on instagram- I knew it was happening for us. I asked her for some specifics on how her contractor installed them, and it was just was I suspected. They installed steel bars inset into the studs of the wall, and shimmied a “wood sandwich” like I like to call it- into the pegs.. I shared what specifics I found and shared with Tom, and he said “I can do that!”
Music to my ears.
First thing’s first- I needed to order the steel bars needed. I knew I needed a shelf that was wide enough to fit a dinner plate. Most dinner plates are 10-11’’ diameter, so I knew I wanted a minimum of that. We went with 12’’ to give myself some breathing space. After measuring in the kitchen, it actually worked out perfectly because that is the depth we needed to be able to line up with the corner of the existing upper cabinet we left up, if that makes sense. I will be installing a flat panel that will act like a dummy cabinet, so that the shelf will have something to up up against. I figured I needed the bars that were going to be shimmied into the shelf itself to extend out more than half of the width of the shelf, and 8’’ felt like a good number. You can do longer if you want, but this was what we used!
Tom documented some of the progress for me so I can share it with you all! I will try my best to describe how he did this, so bare with me. Tom got down to it once the steel floating shelf brackets arrived so he could get started installing the brackets. He has them separated 18’’ apart, for maximum support. You can see here that he inset the bracket into the drywall, into the sheetrock.
Day 1: Installing the Steel Bars
It took him a full day to get these in, and most importantly, make sure they are PERFECTLY straight. and level. My biggest stress with this was that somehow the shelf wouldn’t be straight and that it was going to tile in any degree of the wall.
Day 2: Glueing and Nailing
When he came back the next day, he was ready to start building the actual shelf that would be able to slide right into the pegs. He built the shelf out of MDF, which is fairly inexpensive. He decided the best and most sturdy way to build the shelf is by stacking, gluing, and nailing 3 “slabs” of the length of the board together, making the whole shelf 2.25’’ thick. I also want to note that since the MDF didn’t come in a 13’ length, so he had too add the remainder length needed to the end of the board, to create one single length.
After the 3 slabs were glued and nailed together, it was time for them to dry and set overnight. Tom clamped the 3 boards together, propped it up right, and let it chill. I guess a dresser I have in the garage is the work bench? LOL
Day 3: Install Day
The next day Tom removed the clamps, straightened up the edges (as you can see it got a little wanky on the end lol), and was ready to start drilling the holes the bars will slid into. This took some careful planning because the bars and the holes have to match up EXACTLY where the coordinated bars are installed in the kitchen. A quarter inch off, he would miss the hole fo them to slide into- making it super difficult to install. When he installed the bars, like I said above, he knew they were exactly 18’’ apart, So this should be the easy part if his measuring was accurate, right? After he did this, he attached a skinny thin piece of trim to the front of the shelf to finish it off and mitered the edge corner so that it lines up perfectly with the 12’’ side that wraps around.
After the holes were made, it was time to install. I was NOT home at the time, and I have no idea how he managed to bring that thing up the stairs, BY HIMSELF, but he did and I am shocked. That thing is HEAVY. He cut down supports that was the distance below the shelf so it could hold up the shelf as he was installing. SMART if you ask me.
From what he told me, these things were aa tough cookie to get into the pegs. He said it was pretty difficult, mostly because there was essentially no wiggle room from the diameter drill bit he used and the diameter of the steel rod. It’s a perfect snag fit, so it requires a little but of push and shove. Ha! By the time I got home last night, Tom had left me with a pretty shelf that I could enjoy for the weekend until he returned back next week!
I was a little too excited and immediately started styling the shelf. Styling shelfs in general isn’t easy, and requires alot of edit and trial and error. However, I will say my first time’s not too bad! We still need to fill some of the imperfections with wood putty, and then sand and paint it- but- I think it’s looking so great!
Now, one thing’s for sure- I need to get the new sink and faucet in and do the countertops even sooner than originally planned! Let’s just put a finger over the ugly sink and ignore that for now. Ha! Still so much to do, but its coming along great, I think!
