We enjoy adding some unique pieces and DIY projects to our home. My husband is a Carpenter and our weekends often include doing projects for our home, whether it be building a wooden décor sign, trays for décor items, or reno projects. This has and continues to give us the opportunity to add some DIY projects, unique pieces and our personal style to our home. It also gives me a great opportunity to be involved with making these items, learn more about some tips and tricks of the trade and share them.
Our weekends also often include a trip to Home Depot to pick up some materials for projects in and around our home.
We are happy to give you a glimpse of what we have been working on and are excited to share some upcoming projects as well! As a homeowner, it is so beneficial to be involved in learning, creating, building and adding a few feature pieces as well as projects that you can do on your own.
Today on the blog, I am sharing how we built and created a unique customized shelf that combines some rustic and industrial elements for our home office!
Materials:
- A sheet of 4 ft. x 8 ft. of Birch Veneer Plywood (3/4 of inch thickness)
- ¾ inch x ¾ inch x 8 ft. of angled metal shelf support x 6 pieces (3 for wall support, 3 for front edge support of shelf)
- Metal threaded rods 5/16ths inches (comes in 6 ft lengths) x 6 pieces
- Nuts: 5/16ths inches x 30 nuts (12 for U channel, 18 for front edge support of shelves)
- U channel: ¾ inch x ¾ inch x 8 ft. long (gets mounted to ceiling)
- #8 x 3 inch round head screws x approximately 10 (to mount U channel to ceiling)
- #6 x 5/8 of inch round head screws (to screw metal angle to shelf support)
- Stain: MINWAX, colour: 245 Golden Pecan
- Varnish: Varathane water based interior Crystal Clear Gloss
Tools:
- A step ladder
- Compact drill
- Saw (to cut shelves)
- Measuring tape + pencil
- Drill bits (5/16ths & 1/8th)
- Sandpaper 120 grit
- A palm sander
- A hack saw (to cut metal)
- A Level
- A stud finder (optional)
Instructions:
We have been wanting to build a customized shelf (as well as a desk) for our Home Office. Once we had the idea of what we wanted and materials list, we headed on over to our local Home Depot.
*YOUR LOCAL HARDWARE STORE CAN PROVIDE THE SERVICE OF PRE-CUTTING YOUR ITEMS RIGHT IN STORE IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH DOING SO – BE SAFE AND USE YOUR OWN DISCRETION*
Choose your wood species and divide into shelves:
We chose our preferred wood species. (There are a variety of options and price points available at Home Depot). We really like the grain of the BIRCH VENEER WOOD.
A staff member kindly offered us assistance to find the particular slab that we liked most and ripped the sheet of plywood in store to the width of the shelf that we requested. *The sheet of plywood can be cut at the store.*
We asked for the wood to be divided into 4 pieces, 3 for our shelf project and one will be set aside for a future project.
My husband sanded the wood – both sides and all edges. TIP: *REMEMBER TO GO WITH THE GRAIN OF THE WOOD*
The shelves are ready to STAIN and VARNISH - allowing for at least 24 hours to dry.
How to make the front edge (metal supports) of the shelf:
We have attached a SPECS SHEET for your reference:
For the SHELVES, the spacing between the shelves are 13 inches. The THREADED RODS were cut at 44 inches.
Next, take the U CHANNEL and measure the spacing: 6 equal spaces across, for each of the 6 threaded rods.
Mark the centre of each point and drill it out, in order for threaded rod to pass through the channel. *(The threaded rods are 5/16 inches and so the drill bit size should be at least 5/16ths or greater in order to allow for rods to pass through.)*
Attach the 2 NUTS on end of the THREADED ROD that were cut. REPEAT steps above for each rod.
Next, pass every THREADED ROD through the U CHANNEL and transfer the dimensions from the U CHANNEL to the front edge of each SHELF and also the 3 pieces of the ¾ x ¾ inch metal. SEE PIC BELOW. Drill out using the same drill bit size (5/16ths).
Wall Support:
FIND THE WALL STUDS (you can use a stud finder which you can buy at Home Depot). Put a pencil mark at each stud.
Take the piece of metal, hold it on the wall. Transfer the POINTS of the PENCIL MARKS ONTO piece of METAL.
PRE-DRILL all of those points ONTO the piece of METAL.
FASTEN the METAL SUPPORT TO the WALL using the drill and be sure that they are installed LEVEL. We used a LASER LEVEL.
Installing the Shelves:
Fasten the track to the ceiling. *(REFER TO SPECS ABOVE IN POST FOR WHERE TO FASTEN TRACK TO CEILING)*
Take the FIRST SHELF piece and feed the THREADED RODS into the holes in shelf, bringing the shelf all the way to the TOP BRACKET SUPPORT.
Then, bring the PIECE OF METAL all the way up to support the front edge of the shelf. (shown below after lifting up the second shelf)
To hold the METAL in place, put ONE NUT ON EACH THREADED ROD and bring the NUT all the way up to support the METAL. REPEAT FOR EACH SHELF.
We have added a VIDEO CLIP of how we installed the shelf which you can watch HERE on the blog Facebook page.
And voila - A unique and customized Industrial Inspired Shelf! We added these shelves to our Home Office space:
Stay tuned for the next post – HOW TO build and install a custom rustic inspired DESK that we added to fit in with the industrial look of these shelves.