Hey gang! I'm still here! I have so much exciting stuff to tell you all about. The first being this super simple DIY "reclaimed wood shelf" that I made for our living room. Now, some of you may remember that Dave and I were having some trouble figuring out what do with our big blank living room wall. My original idea was to paint it as an accent wall. I wanted a deep, almost black, plum color. Dave was not super into that idea. We definitely did the thing where we bought a bunch of those tiny tester cans of paint and painted the squares on the walls and yada yada yada... In the end, none of them seemed right and Dave was painting the rest of the room white so we just gave up on that idea. Learning lesson #1: Patience paid off. I am normally not a patient person, however I appreciate this particular virtue more and more everyday and this is a good example of why. The first addition to THE WALL was the $1.25 Rodarte for Target Moon wrapping paper that I threw in a Ribba frame. It's hard to shoot without getting a reflection but here's an instagram:
So that took up some space and looks like a Polaroid of the moon and I love it. We put a cool lamp and my framed copy of "So" by Peter Gabriel on the lime green table and everything started falling into place. But here's my favorite thing ever: the shelf. Now, I don't wanna do the thing that's like, "Don't pay for blah blah blah because it's over-priced and not worth it arrrggghhh!" because DIY-ing is just not a feasible reality sometimes. In this case however, I will say that this project was super easy and cheap and it came out pretty identical to the retail version. Sorry West Elm. So we decided to put a shelf above the TV and we needed something that made sense with this custom one we got from Blake Avenue that's on the other side of the room. It looks like this:
So basically, iron brackets and reclaimed wood, but cheaper. West Elm makes this version, which is not cheaper but I thought maybe I would just get the brackets and make my own "reclaimed wood" shelf. Well, fate stepped in and the brackets I wanted weren't available until March 2014 or some jazz so we decided to look elsewhere. In the meantime, I went to Home Depot and picked up a plank of wood. It was $8. I distressed it a little, sanded it a little, and stained it A LITTLE. That's the beauty of the "reclaimed" look, the goal is to make it look like you've done nothing to it. Perfect. Back to the brackets. I looked on Etsy and found a bunch of cool, industrial iron brackets but they were all pretty pricey. Then I found these at Target (good old Target) and they were $9.99 marked down to $7.50.
I loved how they were crescent-moon-y and black iron and basically perfect all the way around. Game.Set.Match. We screwed them in and mounted it. (Does that sound kinda sexual?) So, just to recap: West Elm wants $118 for their version, but it was super easy to make for $16. Just sayin... 
Here's some more glamour shots because I'm pretty pleased with myself.
Finally, a year later we have a "Before and After"!
Now the drama will be obsessing about exactly what bric-a-brac to put on the shelf. It will take years to curate I'm sure. Thanks for reading! The moon is in Capricorn and the witches say "Trust A Friend". Stay tuned for a post about the Office Re-vamp 2.0. LOVEYOUMEANIT.
So that took up some space and looks like a Polaroid of the moon and I love it. We put a cool lamp and my framed copy of "So" by Peter Gabriel on the lime green table and everything started falling into place. But here's my favorite thing ever: the shelf. Now, I don't wanna do the thing that's like, "Don't pay for blah blah blah because it's over-priced and not worth it arrrggghhh!" because DIY-ing is just not a feasible reality sometimes. In this case however, I will say that this project was super easy and cheap and it came out pretty identical to the retail version. Sorry West Elm. So we decided to put a shelf above the TV and we needed something that made sense with this custom one we got from Blake Avenue that's on the other side of the room. It looks like this:
So basically, iron brackets and reclaimed wood, but cheaper. West Elm makes this version, which is not cheaper but I thought maybe I would just get the brackets and make my own "reclaimed wood" shelf. Well, fate stepped in and the brackets I wanted weren't available until March 2014 or some jazz so we decided to look elsewhere. In the meantime, I went to Home Depot and picked up a plank of wood. It was $8. I distressed it a little, sanded it a little, and stained it A LITTLE. That's the beauty of the "reclaimed" look, the goal is to make it look like you've done nothing to it. Perfect. Back to the brackets. I looked on Etsy and found a bunch of cool, industrial iron brackets but they were all pretty pricey. Then I found these at Target (good old Target) and they were $9.99 marked down to $7.50.
Here's some more glamour shots because I'm pretty pleased with myself.
Finally, a year later we have a "Before and After"!
Now the drama will be obsessing about exactly what bric-a-brac to put on the shelf. It will take years to curate I'm sure. Thanks for reading! The moon is in Capricorn and the witches say "Trust A Friend". Stay tuned for a post about the Office Re-vamp 2.0. LOVEYOUMEANIT.
