Wall Cubby Shelf

Thanks to anyone who voted! We're moving on to round 2! This was ours...

A lot of people have said, "I knew this one was you." Maybe becuase they know I love a wood project,

or maybe because they know I wasn't capable of any of the other amazingness.

Honestly, I was like, "Am I on project runway?" These people are basically profesh!

Anyhoo, I'm really excited that I had a reason to get right on this project.

I'd been wanting to copy this pottery barn shelf for a while.

I started with 3- 1x6's, some gorilla wood glue, some spray paint, sand paper, etc....

A 1x6 is actually a little less than that. You can make them this deep, but the pottery barn one is 5" deep, so I shaved a little off with a table saw. Not necessary, but I did it.

Then I cut 4 pieces, 23.5" long, then sanded them.

Then I cut 2 pieces, 25" long for the outside. I set them aside.

Then I trimmed the rest of the wood 1/4", lengthwise with the table saw because the verticals are actually a little less deep in the picture, and I wanted it to be similar.

Can you tell what I mean from the bottom, right corner in this picture?

From this narrower wood, I cut 9 pieces in 5 inch segments, so I had 9 pieces, 5"x 4.75 " Then sanded.

Then I glued 3 short pieces, onto a horizontal piece (23.5").

I spaced them out evenly, leaving 4 sections that are about 5.5" wide.

I marked about where they would go, then used some wood glue, from gorilla glue.

My partner, Cheri, suggested this brand, and I was really happy with it.

Then I turned it on it's side, used a square to shore it up and nailed it in from the bottom.

Soon, I had this. You can see the board weren't perfectly straight, but it turned out fine in the end.

Then I put glue down, another board, and nailed it in.

For the next set of small vertical pieces, I toe-nailed them in (at an angle).

I continued, until I had this:

I put the top on, next up, were the sides.

Then I took my 25" pieces and drew the curve I wanted on the top.

This needed to be cut with a jig-saw, which is my favorite saw, by the way.

Sides were nailed on, then I gave it all one more sanding.

Then I cut a piece if 1/4 inch plywood to 25" by 19.5" for the back.

The next day, I primed,

spray painted,

and distressed.

I used sand paper and a glaze/paint mixture to rough it up and make it look weathered, like the original.

In the pottery barn description it says they are hand painted numbers, so that's what I tried to copy.

I made a fancy template out of a 4x6, then penciled on the ovals.

Then I printed out numbers and placed them over the wood.

I used an exacto knife to make guide marks for the numbers.

Then I painted them on the best I could.

My sister helped with all of the cute packaging.

I just couldn't say "we" in the description, or it would give us away.

We combined our wrapping resources, made a mess and came up with 12 gifts.

I'm really happy with the result.

I knew this shelf could be used for so many things, I just threw a few things on there to show you.

I wanted it to be a "12 day's of Christmas" shelf, for now. My mentor and star (indeed she is) told me a story of a Christmas family tradition where you anonymously give a present, each of the 12 days before Christmas. How perfect is that! I have been wanting to think of ways to get my kids more focused on giving instead of receiving! (They are already telling me what they want!) That way, this can hang in our home, and be a reminder of service and giving, and each day, as the shelf gets emptier, our excitement will grow. I can't wait to make this a tradition in my home and for this shelf to serve as a reminder of giving! Thanks Cheri, and thanks to Tam for giving me the motivation I needed!

Now here's the theme for round 2:

Possibilities are endless. I can't seem to pin down an idea yet.

Hmmmmmm...