DIY Shelving

I think it has been a while since I put up any shelving. When I think back, I remember my husband and I put up additional wire shelving in this new house about a year ago. It came with instructions and the two of us worked together and put up two shelves. I was very happy with the results.

Afterwards I heard my husband mention that he didn't like helping me with projects because they took so long to do. (True, I had thought we could put up both shelves in an hour, but it took us more like three hours. I did most of the drilling!) So I am not asking or waiting for his help anymore.

Then there's the shelving I started on yesterday...it ended up taking two days of my "free time." That means it took up all the time I was willing to put into it, which was 6 hours yesterday and 4 more hours today. I am now tired so I am catching up on my blog.

DIY = Do It Yourself
So I got out the DIY "wood" corbels and the short shelf for the "take one shelf and expand it to two shelves" project I wanted at one end of my dining/sewing room. I had a nice wood shelf with two supports already on the wall and I wanted a shorter shelf up above. I had bought a shorter shelf and two nice "wood" supports some time ago and now I opened them up and looked at them.

That is when the DIY part sank in to my soul.

I had two "wood" corbels/shelf supports with slots on the back and one screw with plastic anchor for each one. OK. I know how to drill a hole in the wall and tap in the plastic anchor and screw in the screw leaving the head out one quarter inch to fit into the slot on the back of the support.

But evidently I don't know how to measure. The shelf supports were 7 inches across and matched the new shelf width, but the part that angles down the wall was 10 inches long. This meant that I was preparing to put a shorter shelf above but with longer supports. Even worse, the 10 inch supports had two grooves in them that looked nice, but the new short shelf was a square board, no grooves or curves.

Back to the shelf that was already on the wall. The nice long real wood shelf had a routed finished edge, and the supports had a smooth curved edge. I held the new "wood" support up to the old shelf and they looked great together. In fact, I could even put a shelf for ribbon spools up between the lower section of the two supports if I could find a thin board. I already had some wood trim that could act as support on the sides for the ribbon shelf. And then, comparing the new short shelf with the old supports, yes! they would look great!

See what is going to happen to my DIY shelving project? Yes, it is going to expand to take up all the time allotted to it. I'm so glad I didn't ask my husband for help.

First thing is remove all STUFF on short file cabinets below working area, and Second, remove old shelf from wall. Uh-oh. Old shelf has dowel pins holding the three parts together. New "wood" supports have a groove in the top. A groove? I've never seen this before. Guess I'll have to do some drilling and screwing to make the old match the new and the new match the old.

So I hopped in the car and went off to find some dowel pins and a thin board and maybe some shorter shelf supports if they had any. No right size dowel pins. No right size supports. Found the thin board - Poplar wood. I like Poplar wood, it has a greenish tint to it. I like green. But I'll be painting it white, so I also bought a little jar of sample paint and had it tinted white. She wouldn't let me buy it plain white. It had to be tinted so it could get a bar code and be sold.

Home again. Back to work. So glad I know how to use the drill and the chuck and where to find an extension cord. And how to use the jigsaw. And where to find the paintbrush and sandpaper and newspaper.

I drilled large dowel sized holes in the "wood" supports (actually not really large enough because the "wood" splits a little at the back but no one can see it so I don't worry about it.) Then I use the dowels for the old shelf and the new supports and push them together. Nice!

Then I drill holes through the new shelf and matching holes into the old supports. I screw them together with the screws. The screwheads stick out a little (guess I didn't drill the holes long enough in the supports) but the shelf will be up so high no one will be able to see the top of the shelf so I don't worry about it.

Now I put the old long shelf up on the wall, matching the new supports with the old screw and anchors. It fits! Then I measure the height for the second shelf, stand on a chair holding the new shelf, a level on top of it and a pencil to mark with. I had put a tiny mark on the shelf supports where the large hole was for the screw, so I leveled the shelf on the wall and marked those two spots and drew lines on either side of the supports so I would know the exact width.

Closer and closer to finishing! I took the new screws and anchors and drilled holes in the walls and tapped them in. Screwed in the screws, put up the shelf, and the short upper shelf was done!

Back to the long old shelf...painted the thin board after cutting it with the jigsaw. Cut the two trim supports as well, and painted those edges. Went over to the old long shelf and started taking it down and it comes off the wall in pieces! AAARRRGGHH!!!

Ok, so there's some problem here with the slots. The new support slots don't really fit over the old screw heads and one of them is now bent down at an angle. Looks like I'll have to see what wall anchors we already have and find some slightly smaller screw heads that will fit the new slots. Meanwhile I put glue on the dowel pins and put the shelf back together and set it down on the floor.

Paint the second coat on the thin board. Eat dinner. Hunt for more screws. Realize that it is now after 7pm and I am too tired to work on this anymore. I clear off the table, putting everything back where it belongs in the garage, set the long shelf up on the short shelf and relax with a book.

The next day I look up at the long shelf and notice that one of the supports is slightly tilted. I get it down and realize that the dowel pins don't really hold the supports square and I'd better hunt up two angle brackets. I am so glad I saved the little tiny screws for the angle brackets the last time I needed some. I get out the drill and set the small drill bit in.

Then I carefully set the square/right angle ruler beside the support so I can mark the holes for the right angle bracket in the right place. I mark only one side at a time, having once had the bracket change angles on me when I put in the first screw after drilling all four holes for another shelf in another house. This set of brackets goes well, but then I realized that same support was leaning again. So I backed out just those two screws a thread or two and the support was straight again. Ah, the joy of knowing no one will actually be able to tell my mistakes once they are on the wall.

Time to paint the angle brackets. Two coats of white dabbed on with a little paintbrush. Back to looking through my box of screws for two that will fit into the new support slots. And there's a plastic bag of different sized wall anchors that have just the right size. These screws and anchors look a lot like the ones that came with the new supports, so I think I'm on the right track. Then I put a larger drill bit on the drill and realize I'd better do a level shelf check first and mark the new holes for the new anchors.

Here we go again: hold the shelf up to the wall with a level on it and mark the hole spots and the support widths with a pencil. Set the shelf down. Drill the two holes as near the center of the support lines as possible, about an inch and a half above the old holes. Try to tap in one anchor. Not working. Get a large screw nearly the width of the anchor out of the screwbox. Put it in the hole and wiggle it around so it enlarges the hole. Tap the anchor in again. It goes in just right this time! Do the other anchor. Screw in the two screws, leaving the heads sticking out 1/4". (I had tried the screws in the anchors before so I knew they'd fit.) Now to put the long shelf up and see if it fits onto those new screws and anchors. It does! It looks Great!!

Now, let's try to add that new thin board and the two little shelf supports. Perhaps I could find some very thin nails and nail them on. Found nails in the little nail drawer, carefully tapped them in to the shelf supports I had sawed off with the coping saw, sanded and painted with white paint. Now to take down the shelf, hold the little supports with the nails in them onto the large supports and nail it all down. Um...the shelf won't come off the wall. I guess I'll have to think of another way...Can I nail while the shelf is on the wall? No, there is too much rebound.

So out comes the Elmer's glue and masking tape. I glued the two supports on and taped them in the right place, laying the thin board on top very carefully to check that it is level. Take the thin board off the top and leave the supports in place drying. Head off to Michaels for a thin piece of dowel to paint white and hotglue at the front of the thin board so the ribbon spools won't roll off. Come home and cut the dowel with the coping saw, sand the end, wipe off the dust, paint white and let dry. Realize the dowel is a bit rough and sand it down. Wipe it off, and paint a second coat.

Eat lunch while the dowel dries. Find the glue gun. Let it heat up, then squeeze a long line of hot glue down the front edge of the board. Quickly set the dowel on it and push it into the glue all up and down the dowel so that it sets in tightly. Set it all aside for another night because the glue on the supports must be completely dry before trying to put the thin board in place. Decide that if the supports for the thin board ever fall off I will just TAPE them in place. Or get out the gorilla glue that scares me with its strength every time I use it.

The next morning, I set the thin board in place and put the ribbon spools on it and it all looks beautiful. It has taken parts of three days to complete this simple project. I am ready to take a break from all this hard work....

Thank you for reading and may all your DIY projects be easier than mine.