DIY Rustic Kitchen Shelf

So as you may know, the latest area of my house I’ve been hyper focusing on (as far as decorating goes) is my kitchen.

Last spring I gave our kitchen a complete makeover by painting our kitchen cabinets (whole video on how I did it here) and you would not believe the difference in this space from simply changing the cabinet color from oak to white. It’s incredible! But ever since then, I moved my sights to other areas of our home, but recently came back to the kitchen.

Specifically one little nook in our kitchen 🙂 In the corner of our kitchen, we have a couple of cabinets topped with a butcher block countertop (which I recently gave a makeover by re-staining it, more on that here) and then two super blank, sad walls. Lol

I’ve been mulling over how I was going to decorate/fill the space for literally 2 years since we moved into this house. But I am finalllllly getting around to decorating it (I also finally decided how I would do it) so here we are!

One of the things I knew I wanted on the walls was a rustic shelf. While I don’t think I could ever go full open shelving in lieu of cabinets, I do love the look of shelves in a kitchen. So I decided I had to have one…but didn’t necessarily want to buy one (for what I had in mind they just seemed pricier than what I was willing to pay). So I just decided to make it myself! And it was SO SO easy.

I am not a pro when it comes to DIY projects..like not at all. Literally every time I start one I’m like welp hope this turns out okay! Lol. And I typically just wing it. So if I can do it, you totally can to.

 

What you’ll need:

1 pine board (any wood really works) – I had them cut me the size I needed at Lowes (mine is 32″ long)

2 wood corbels/shelf brackets (got these ones from Lowes for $3 each!!)

Wood stain (I used this one)

Wood Finish (I have this one)

Chalk paint (I make my own, see recipe here)

Sandpaper (I used this)

Stud anchors (I used these)

#8 1-1/2″ phillips screws (I used these)

#8 1-1/4″ wood screws (I used these)

 

How to make it:

1. Start by sanding the board, and then remove any excess dust.
2. Apply stain to board. Once stain is applied & dry, add coats of wood finish (I just did 1 since it won’t be touched very much at all).
3. Using the stain on a rag, stain all edges of the korbels. You want these areas to show up darker through the chalk paint, and to be dark when you sand away the chalk paint. This gives it that weathered, rustic look. (Even though it’s brand spankin’ new wood!)
4. Paint corbels with chalk paint & allow to dry.
5. Using sandpaper, lightly sane edges of corbels – just enough so that they stain can show through.
6. Using 1-1/4″ wood screws, attach corbels to stained board. (For this, I held the board & corbels in place, while Matt drilled the screws through the top of the board, down into the corbels. We used this to drill).
7. Lastly, using the stud anchors & phillips screws, attach the shelf to the wall! We made sure to use a level to make sure the studs were going in perfectly straight. (And by we, I mean Matt 😉 )

May seem like kind of a lot of steps, but honestly – this came together SO easy. Literally went out to Lowes on a Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday night we had a rustic shelf on our wall!

Would you take this on as an afternoon project??

xx Becca