DIY kitchen open shelves
As one of my first posts, I thought I’d write about a favorite project of mine: our kitchen open shelves. When we were first considering designs for our kitchen, I browsed kitchen photos trying to decide which elements I wanted to incorporate. I’m a gal who likes to do very thorough, often too much, research before I start a project. Which can be exhausting. But, this time it paid off. After looking at hundreds of kitchen pictures, there was one thing that kept jumping out at me: open shelves. I just love how they make a kitchen look light and airy and open. We also decided that in our open-concept space, using open shelving instead of upper cabinets would make the kitchen feel less kitchen-y (sounds weird, but you get my point) and more like part of the entire living space. So there I was, in the center of dreamy, lovely, open-shelving fantasies….
But then came our longer-than-expected 7-month whole house renovation. After a long, hot, summer with multiple projects going at once, higher costs than we planned, and a major case of decision fatigue, we were happy to just have a working kitchen. And our open shelf dreams were on the back, back, BACK burner. We actually grew pretty accustomed to seeing our kitchen without them. There may have even been a few times after a particularly grueling day when we convinced ourselves they weren’t necessary.
But eventually, as other projects wrapped, we decided it was finally time to take the plunge. After all, how could I disappoint all those beautiful open-shelf inspo pics on my Pinterest boards?? It turns out, we were really putting it off for no reason, because it was a pretty simple (and affordable!) project. And boy, did it pay off:
I’m in DEEP LOVE with them. They’re everything I dreamed of and more! I love how they fill the space and create some beautiful symmetry along with the windows. Plus, it gives us a chance to display nicer dishes and add some depth and color to our all-white kitchen. Of course, we hit a few bumps along the way, but nothing that we couldn’t overcome.
Process and Supplies
Shelf brackets (11.25 inches, Powder coated black, 8)
XL Toggle Bolts (Powder coated black, 8 sets of 2)
XL Lag Bolts (Powder coated black, 2 sets of 2)
Chop saw (Similar to this)
Glass and tile drill bit (Similar to this)
Pencil
Measuring tape
Level
Paintbrush (for poly)
Cotton rag
Towel (or tack cloth)
Sandpaper (120, 220, 320)
Our first step was to decide what size to make the shelves. We chose 30” in length so they would fill up the space but leave a little room on either side. We decided to use two 1”x12”x8” whitewood boards, mainly because they were only about $16 each. We went for cost-effectiveness here, figuring that we could always replace the wood with something nicer and more substantial down the road. But I actually really like the knotty look of the whitewood. I’m also liking the thinner boards because it gives the shelves a nice, sleek profile. We did a lot of research about depth and found that 12” is pretty standard for kitchen open shelves. I will say that when we held up a board to check out the depth, I got a little nervous that it was too deep. It seemed a bit imposing on our workspace. I think because the space had been empty for SO LONG, having anything there seemed like a lot. However, after having them up for several weeks, I can confirm that this depth is perfect. It accomodates a normal-size dinner plate and doesn’t intrude on the workspace at all.
You should note that when a store says a board is 1” x 12”, the actual dimensions are ¾” x 11¼”. This is important to keep in mind when ordering your brackets, because we had to order 11 ¼” brackets for our advertised 12” boards.
Before we measured and cut the boards to size, we cut the very ends off of each board. Oftentimes, lumber from box stores has dents or imperfections on the ends. If you have enough length on the board, cutting off the ends ensures that you get a nice, clean edge. Then, we marked the boards at 30” and used a speed square to make a straight line. We made the cut using a chop saw . By “we” I mean Nick, because I’m still attempting to use the saw without vididly imagining myself cutting off a finger. It’s a work in progress.
With the chop saw, Nick placed the board on the platform and, without pulling the trigger, lowered the blade to the pencil line to prepare for the cut. He placed the blade just on the outside of the pencil line (the part he cut off). If you cut directly on the line, the board will be short. Then, chop chop!
Based on my phone’s camera roll, it appears that once the boards were cut, there was a brief intermission for Nick to hit a few golf balls with my dad’s old clubs. Don’t forget that breaks are an important step for any project (haha).
After our break, we sanded the boards with 120 grit sand paper using an orbital sander. We’ve made the mistake of using a palm sander for projects like this in the past. It just doesn’t compare to the beautiful finish of the orbital sander. Because they were brand new boards, we really just had to even out some of the deeper knots and surface imperfections. We also rounded out the corners a little so they weren’t so sharp. So, 120 grit worked great for this purpose. Then we went in with a 220 grit to really smooth out the surface. The best thing to do before applying stain is to wipe down the boards with tack cloth. But we only think of tack cloth immediately AFTER every sanding project we do and are never at a good point to stop and run back out. So we used a slightly damp towel followed by a dry towel and, once again, vowed to pick up tack cloth the next time we go to the store (we won’t).
After testing a few stain options on the leftover wood, we decided to go with Provincial. I tried a lighter stain, but the wood was just pulling too yellow, which is one of the downsides of using an inexpensive board. Ideally, I would have chosen a lighter stain for these shelves, but I am happy with the richness that comes with a bit of a darker stain. Because I didn’t want them too dark, I applied the stain with a cotton rag and then almost immediately wiped it off. Letting it sit for longer would darken the color if that were the look I wanted. Additional coats also darken the color, so I only did one coat for this project.
I let them sit for about 2 days before applying poly to ensure the stain was fully absorbed. I used a matte poly because we like the look of a matte finish against the shiny tile. I applied poly using a foam brush, then let it dry for about 5 hours. I then filpped them over and did the other side, letting that dry for 5 hours as well. Because the boards were so thin, I had to be very careful to be sure there were no poly drips on the edges. You can lightly sand out poly impreferections between coats, but larger bumps are harder to sand out without impacting the stain. After the first coat, I sanded all over with 320 grit, and repeated the process. It’s recommended to do 3 or 4 coats but, in typical fashion, we were anxious to get them installed and move onto another project. They’re actually holding up alright with 2 coats, but one day I’ll go back and do a couple more coats (right after we pick up some tack cloth).
While the shelves were being stained and polyed, we installed the brackets. Before we installed our tile backsplash, Nick made a diagram of the stud locations, which he then used to mark on the tile with sharpie (comes off easily). Only a few bracket locations hit studs, so we had to order quite a few toggle bolts, which is what the bracket manufacturer suggested for stud-less installation. Looking back, we should have installed studs where we wanted brackets before tiling. But the toggle bolts turned out fine, so no worries!
After measuring, we pre-drilled holes through the tile with a glass and tile drill bit. Anywhere there was a stud, we used a regular drill bit to pre-drill a hole. Where there wasn’t a stud, we used a 5/8” masonry bit to drill a large opening for the toggle bolts. This part actually required a trip to the store for a giant drill bit because the toggle bolts required HUGE holes and none of the bits we had were large enough.
After holes are drilled, both the regular bolts (for studs) and toggle bolts (for no studs) go through the bracket then into the wall. We ensured that they were level, and then tightened each bolt.
As it turned out, the head of the bolts stuck out a little on the bracket, meaning our shelves didn’t quite fit. To fix this, we just cut a little bit out of the back of each shelf to accommodate for the bolt head. Then we put our shelves on the brackets and we were done!
And here’s another look at the final result:
This was our first time making and installing open shelves, and I just love how they turned out! There may have been a couple things we will do differently on similar projects in the future, but that’s ok! Every project is just an opportunity to learn.
Awesome! I love how you detail products used and honestly stating what worked and what didn’t- keep going with more projects!!!!!!
Such an informative article! All the information provided by you is really very helpful. By using tack cloth you can easily remove small dust particles from the surface and it also gives you smooth paint finishing. Thank you for sharing! Keep posting!