One Last Kitchen Project

Hello friends.  I am back today with one last kitchen update project:  My mini coffee nook area.  The builder left what I have always thought of as a "dead zone" at the end of one wall of kitchen cabinets.  From ceiling to floor there was a twenty-two inch wide, nine feet tall, are of underutilized space (16 sq feet of dead wall area)!  We had previously add a kitchen island on wheels to the area, which is great for serving or for additional counter/prep area.  That still left six feet by twenty-two inches of unused space.  

While scrolling through Pinterest (you know one of the three on-line time killers in our lives, Pinterest, Facebook, and blogs - like mine!), I found a photo where shelves had been added to an area using the shelving brackets pictured above and below.  They are by Ikea, but available through Amazon. I loved the almost floating shelf look.  I like the metal trim at the end of the wood shelves, without clunky shelf supports.  I had planned to install three shelves in the kitchen so I ordered three sets of supports.

The brackets hold shelves that are one inch deep x seven and  a half inches wide.  Through further reading I found out that one inch lumber is in fact NOT one inch thick, but three-quarters of an inch thick and I would have a 1/4 inch empty area in my bracket if I used standard 1 inch thick lumber.  I really wanted something that filled the bracket, but did not cost an arm or a leg.  Then I found an article that introduced me to Stair Treads.  Stair Treads are a true one inch thick piece of lumber made for building stairs.  They measure 1 x 11.25 x 48,  perfect.  I ordered two Stair Treads from Lowe's for $9.98 each.  Doug used his table saw and cut half of lumber to 7.5 x 22 for me, removing the rounded front edge. He cut the remaining pieces at 7.5 x 26. My total cost per shelf is $5.00.

I used wood stain from my home project supplies stash and stained the shelves to be very rustic looking.  I did not a high gloss look, but something more farmhouse.  

I purchased a small can of Chalkboard paint and painted a portion of my dead zone.  I rounded the top, which had to be painted twice due to mom's helpful nudge mid-stroke!  

Using my Cricut and two cartridges, Word Collage and one other that I did not record the name of (!), I cut the white vinyl elements from the Coffee cut on Word Collage.  I used the Select Contour feature and removed part of the collage, keeping on the areas I planned to use.   I used transfer tape to move the cuts from the mat to the wall.    This was a two day project, only because we had over night company after the paint and shelves were up, but before I had a chance to cut the vinyl.  Also, I am still waiting for the tall thin pitcher I order from Magnolia Market (Chip and Joanna Gaines on line store) to arrive.  It will sit on the top shelf under the C in coffee.

In the end I only used two of the shelves in the kitchen.  I ordered one more set of brackets and added the two remaining larger shelves over the toilet in the Master Bathroom water closet. The water closet needed some type of storage area and the longer shelves are perfect.  So, lucky for me, my final kitchen project (for a while) became a bathroom update too.  Kind of a home improvement "twofer" - two for one!

Thanks for stopping by for another in the series of "how I make my husband crazy" home update projects.  I do have one more diy project planned, then I have promised to take it easy on the house for a while!!