DIY Picture Ledges

Pinterest got me once again...

 I was seeing pins all over my feed of beautiful picture ledges.  I had a large blank wall going down my hallway, that was calling me to fill it with pictures.  I knew that I was too much of a perfectionist and that Tyson strongly disliked hanging things, to have the patience to hang a gallery wall.  Nailing each picture up individually, was a disaster waiting to happen.  When I stumbled upon a DIY picture ledge tutorial, I knew I had found my match.  It seemed simple enough and within budget. When I say within budget, I mean $15 per shelf.  If you were to purchase these shelves they would cost you an arm and a leg, which was something I was not willing to sacrifice.

After the chalkboards, it took me some convincing to get the hubby to tackle another project with me.  I am not that handy, so I have to recruit Tyson to be my Tim "The Toolman" Taylor, to make my ideas come to life.  The tutorial I pinned seemed easy enough, but had to alter some things to make it work with what tools we had.  It took a little more work than I had anticipated, but all the more worth the finished product. 

Materials You will Need:

(I made two shelves)

1 - 1x4 @ 8 feet long

 (back)

1- 1x3 @ 8 feet long 

(bottom)

1 - 1x2 @ 8 feet long

(front)

2 inch nails

nail gun

wood glue

sandpaper

spackling and nail hole filler

2 cans spray paint

You can customize the shelves to whatever length and width you would like.  It just so happened to be a bonus that the length I needed was 8 feet.  I knew my shelves were going to be in the hallway so I didn't want them sticking out too far.

Step One:

Sand the wood until it is smooth.

Step Two:

This is where I recruited Ty and my father-in-law.  I don't trust myself with a nail gun.  It will defiantly take two people to complete this step.  Use wood glue to help hold boards into place before you nail gun them together.  Nail the 1x4 (back) piece to the 1x3 (bottom) piece.

^^^ One person can nail, while the other person helps hold the boards in place. ^^^

Step Three:

Glue the 1x2 (front) piece to the 1x3 (bottom) piece.

^^^ Again, you will need another person to help position the wood. ^^^

^^^ Take a step back and admire your shelves. ^^^

Step Four:

Apply spackle to fill in any gaps and nail holes.  

^^^ Use your finger to spread spackle. ^^^

Step Five:

Once the spackle has dried, take your sandpaper and sand until smooth.  I repeated step four and five until there were no visible holes. 

Step Six: (Not Pictured)

Spray paint or stain your wood.  I used a white satin finish and love how it turned out.  This is a two to three day process.  I promise it is worth the wait.  I placed my boards on upside down paint buckets.  You will want to wait at least 24 hours before spraying your second coat.  Once the 24 hours has passed you can rotate your shelves and spray the bottoms. 

Step Seven:

Hang your shelves.  I again recruited some help!  Tyson marked the studs on our wall and then screwed the shelves into them.

(I didn't worry about the screw holes in the shelves, because I knew the pictures would cover them.

Find some picture frames and decorate your ledges.

Thanks to the Harlan Ranch Garage sale, I was able to find some frames for super cheap.

I enjoy walking by my shelves daily and having something on my walls, that were made out of love.   

****So you don't make the same mistakes I did, make sure all of your boards are exactly 8 feet.  Also another helpful hint would be to pay the little extra money and purchase better quality wood.  You won't have to sand as much and there shouldn't be any warping of the wood.  Essentially, you get what you pay for.  Either way, they will still turn out great.
Happy Woodworking!!!!