Never Fear the Power Tools

You may remember my hallway make-over last year. It really added a lot of functionality to the hall for us, but soon started to look more like this:

The shelf I had added above the coat rack was terrible. It never worked quite right, and every time you pulled a jacket off the rack, the lightest tap on it would send all the items tumbling onto our heads. So I took it down and added these pictures, but I never really liked the frames much. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was time to go back to the drawing board. I couldn’t find a shelf I liked, so I decided to make one myself. I went to Home Depot and purchased 3 boards – a 8 inch, 3 inch and 2 inch. They were only 4 foot sections so they fit just fine in my car to bring home.

First, I measured out my space to be sure I could get the shelf to work. I measured out 8 inch sections of wood (to match the width of my shelf top board) on the two inch board and put them quickly through the miter saw.  These are the pieces that hold up my shelf.

I then pre-drilled two holes in each 2 inch piece. Next, I measured my shelf top to be the same size (wall to wall) of the space in my hallway and cut it down to the right size with the circular saw.

Next, I cut down the 3 inch board. This will be the front of my shelf and hide all the other pieces to give it a finished look. I secured the 3 inch board to the front of the shelf top using some carpenters glue and brad nails. Then I found some old paint that I thought would work in the space to add color to my shelf.

I also painted the two smaller pre-drilled pieces.

After everything was dry, I used a screw gun to screw the 2 inch boards directly to the wall. I was sure all was level.

Then I simply slipped the top shelf right over the top of the 2 inch boards.

With a little cosmetic help, filling, sanding and painting the anchor holes from the old shelf, I got this:

Yay. I think this space is finally done? Maybe? I’ll keep you posted!