The pretty is the part of a project where you get to do something that suddenly sheds some real-world light on an idea that previously existed only in your head. It is the first element that will be seen AFTER the project is finished.
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*sniffle* The end was almost in sight! |
Now... imagine getting to that point in the project, only to tear it all apart and start again.
Yeah.
It sucked.
Luckily, we didn't have to go through the re-sanding process. That was already done.
And to make myself feel better, I went ahead and got the lower shelf done. I can honestly say that this is probably the thing that kept me going when all I wanted to do was scream and hit Jake over the head with a piece of wood (Not that it was his fault or anything... he's just the only person generally within hitting range).
We started the shelf the same way as the counter top, by picking our wood pieces and cutting them down to size.
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We started this process before the dreaded "tear it out" moment. |
This time, Jake was the one who sanded the wood down to its natural state. It was only fair, since I did all of the wood for the counter. In comparison, this little baby shelf was nothing!
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oo! ahh! |
Once it fit in the cabinet the way that we liked, we took the boards out, flipped them upside-down, and screwed another piece of scrap wood horizontally across them. The scrap wood would (ha!) ensure the original floor boards didn't shift over time and made them one piece to install instead of four.
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It was super important that we used screws short enough to not pop through the top of the shelf. |
Next was to add the edge "trim" piece.
We knew that we wanted both the shelf and the counter to look like it had some serious weight to it. One really easy way to accomplish this is by adding a piece of wood trim along the edge in the desired thickness. At a glance, the shelf will automatically look that thick.
We lined the front edge of our shelf with finishing nails that we had snipped the blunt edge off of. (This way, the finishing nails would be half in the shelf, half in the trim. All without being visible.)
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We smeared the glue around to get more even coverage and hopefully prevent seepage. |
It was our thought that the weight of the shelf would keep enough pressure on the trim to keep it tight while the wood glue dried.
By the next evening, the shelf was one solid piece and ready for some conditioner:
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Just look at all that character!! |
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My biggest goal here was to make something that looked clean and polished, but still looked distinctly old. |
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So pretty! |
And in case you are super new:
wet + wood = a bad time.
Adding multiple coats of a glossy finish would help to protect the wood and make any clean-up a breeze!
I wasn't sure how many coats I needed but ended up being satisfied after three. (I sanded gently in between each coat with a piece of fine sandpaper, always moving in the direction of the wood grain).
We toyed around with different ways of installing the shelf to the actual cabinet and ultimately decided to just use PL Premium (I think that's what we used. I don't have any pictures of that and can never remember what kind of caulk-like product is used for what...).
We knew that this was going to be our "linen closet" and only store towels so while it would be heavily used, it would only be used for soft, not exceptionally heavy things.
And if you remember, we built the cabinet with an open middle section (see below), this meant that the scrap wood on the underside of the shelf would fit in this open section and the whole shelf could sit snug, flat, and level.
After the shelf was installed, we put a few full paint cans on top (with paper towel protecting the finish) to add some weight over night while it dried.
Like an idiot, I didn't take a picture of the final product before immediately covering it in a black garbage bag to protect it while we continued to work on the counter. So here is the view you get:
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Cropped from a larger image, which is why it's kind of blurry. I suck at this whole blogging thing lol |
My next post will explain what we did differently to finish that counter!
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