The Shelf Project
Well after three years I finally got around to the project I had intended to do first after buying my first house - putting up a ton of shelves. I decided right after moving in I wanted a wrought-iron and pine theme to match the Mexican furniture I bought which brings the added advantage of being very cheap. I took advantage of Dad's visit to get to work - here's a mini-documentary of the project:

First we bought some 10" boards made of pine at Home Depot. Pretty cheap stuff and not 100% straight but we were hoping for a sort of rustic look anyway. I sanded all of the awful green ink stamps off of the boards while Dad used some Danish Oil to make them match my furniture. As fate would have it I found the oil in one of my closets and it matched perfectly - weird.

The boards dry in a corner of the garage while we continue on the rest.

My makeshift sanding station...

Dad applied the Danish oil.

Almost done - we needed 6 full-sized shelves, two half shelves and 2 6 foot shelves for above the bed.

Done the wood! (or so we thought)

So the next morning we take the 12 foot boards into the room and lay them out only to be painfully reminded of the age old phrase "measure twice, cut once..." The odd tape measure we used had no foot markers on it but had boldface numbers at inches divisible by 10. Therefore we saw 120 inches in bold and thought we saw 12 feet. Anyway we had to cut 2 feet off of each board and reseal them. What a riot.

We started with the 1/2 shelf on the right and worked our way up. Here Dad tests the sturdiness of the first shelf - off to a successful start!

From there we used a level and ruler to interpolate the location of the other brackets. The studs on the large wall were 24" apart which put us in a predicament for the lower-left half-shelf; at 3 feet in length it would only overlap one stud. We had to put it off until the next day and go buy some moly-bolts at Home Depot.

We had to test the first long shelf as soon as all the brackets were in - now we were really getting excited!

Fun with power tools!

The brackets creep up the wall at an increasing pace - we only make 5 extra holes: two because of a missing stud and 3 because we turned 3 of the brackets the wrong way and had to rotate them and patch the holes. Oops!

One more row to go!

Done! Except for two shelves above the bed and the moly bolts we are done the brackets.

We were amazed once the shelves went on - they were beautiful!

Then add a few books to get a picture...

The next morning we got the moly-bolts and added a second bracket for the lower-left shelf. It won't line up with the other brackets because of the placement of the studs but at least it can handle some weight.

Once that shelf was up we screwed the shelves to the brackets with 5/8" screws. All the screws were back and blend in wonderfully. Most of the wood was warped so this flattened them out perfectly.

Finally to add some books, a process that will take weeks as I have them stashed everywhere.

We moved the desk back and it begins to look like a final product!

The two shelves above the bed went in so fast that we didn't get any progression shots but boy did they come out great! Next week there will be a photo of a spitfire hanging above the bed - can't wait for that!

Futher along loading up the shelves.

This is the painting of the spitfire that will hang above the two shelves above my bed - I'll need to find a new wall for XBox nights but it is a small price to pay.

Addendum: I got pictures of the new pic above the bed but, alas, it took a dive! Art.com didn't attach the cable so well and the day after it was hung it let go, took out all the stuff on the top shelf and then landed on my mom (she's OK). It was pretty damaged so it had to go back and I have to wait again for another one. Sigh.