First up, a nail polish shelf. I finally ran out of space in the box I was keeping them in, and rather than just get a bigger box I decided to display them in my closet so I could see them easily (and because they are pretty). This way I'm also limited by how much more I can buy. If I fill up those last few spaces in the bottom then I'll have to start throwing some out in order to get more. Self-regulation! Anyway, since I came up with this all by myself, even though it's absurdly simple (I mean, I came up with this all by myself after having never built anything ever) I thought I'd give a step by step in case anyone else wants to see how easy it is to make one for yourself!
Step 1: Figure out the size of your shelf and cut your boards to length. I actually cheated on this part because Nick did the cutting for me. Cutting without a workbench sucks. I chose my measurements to fit into a wall I had in mind in my closet and to use as much as possible of two 6-foot 1x3s (which are actually 3/4x2.5s...), and I ended up with about an inch of scrap from each board, so I feel like I did a very good job!
Step 2: Stain! Not a necessary step but I had never stained anything before and wanted to give it a shot. This is after coat 1.
And after coat 2. After I started I read some more online and found that it's best to seal pine before staining so it doesn't get blotchy, but obviously I was too late on that one. Anyway this is just for my closet so it doesn't have to be amazingly beautiful. Blotchy cherry stain is fine by me!
Step 3: Figure out which sides of your boards are nicer looking. I marked the front left side of each board with a piece of painter's tape so I would remember which side goes in front so I could hide all the extra-splotchy parts or weird knots on the back side of the shelf.
Step 4: Measure out where your shelves will attach to the sides and drill pilot holes. I also drilled shallow pilot holes at the ends of each shelf. Anywhere you are going to put a screw you probably should use a pilot hole so you don't split your wood. Since I used #10 screws I used a 1/8" drill bit. I used two screws per side.
Step 5: Start screwing boards together! (See my terrible non-work-bench setup? I had to just clamp the thing to the deck railing...) First attach all the shelves to one side.
Finally attach the bottom and top pieces.
Step 6: Attach whatever you are using to hang your shelf. I just used these D-ring brackets and I screwed them into the side pieces so the top board wouldn't have to support the whole shelf and so that the brackets would be hidden when the shelf is on the wall.
Done!
To attach the shelf to the wall I just used a monkey hook into drywall on one side and a screw into a stud on the other. I use monkey hooks for hanging heavier items all the time and I would have totally trusted using two of them to hold the whole thing up! If the shelf was much bigger than this I probably would have wanted to use two screws directly into studs to support all the weight, but for this size it's fine with only one.
The second thing we have built lately is this amazing deck gate! I found the plans and Nick did the building on this one. We installed this back in October on our back deck between the smaller fenced-in yard and the rest of it. I got the free plans online that were roughly the same as the dimensions of the hole we were filling, which made it easier to buy the things we needed, but since they were off by about an inch we had to recalculate several of our cuts anyway. Still, the plans were helpful and we now have a deck gate that was made by Nick and makes me happy every time I walk by it! Not to mention it saves us from having to use a piece of old lattice supported by a patio chair to block the dogs off.
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