With the living room painting project done, it was time to pick a new project! In our old apartment we had floating cabinets above our TV that filled up the wall. Now in the new house the tv stand seemed like the smallest thing against that big white wall.
I *loved* the shelves (and everything else) that Kristen F. Davis made for her similarly shaped living room. With true DIY newbie fashion, the project Kristen completed in one weekend I managed to stretch over 10 weeks! Let’s say the winter here made it harder to get out to Home Depot some days and very difficult to stain the wood in a safe way.
I took the design she and her dad roughly sketched out for the shelves and recreated it with measurements that would fit our living room.
Here’s the process of ours going up up up:
ONE: Once we had all the measurements just right on paper, we post-it noted the wall with where the iron beams would go and also each shelf, just to make sure it would line up just right.
TWO: we started building up all the shelves, and carefully leveling them. I didn’t realize how forgiving this design was going to be for 100 year old floors! We were able to loosen and tighten the pipes to get everything flush to the floor.
THREE: it’s getting tall, so out comes the bright yellow step stool from Ikea that I spray painted last fall.
FOUR: Vacuum all the sawdust from drilling holes to secure the support flanges to the wall. And eagerly set a few things on the shelf!
This was a really fun BIG project and I think we totally nailed it. The living room now feels complete, warm and inviting.
To balance out the opposite wall we installed two of the ribba ledge shelves instead of hanging all of our family photos. That part was very little effort for a big effect!
