GUEST POST!!

This is Brady, back again to bring you a breakdown of how I built our new coffee mug shelf which now hangs above our coffee bar. You may think, ‘Oh! So soon?!’ and the answer is ‘Yes.’

So Hailey has been dreaming of this type of shelf since we first moved into our new place two years ago and I have just never got around to it. Until now. Two weeks before our FIFTH CHILD!! I don’t know what I was thinking.

So two years ago Hailey sent me a Pintrest link to this blog. I used it as a rough outline for our project but mostly just as some starter dimensions. I didn’t follow their method of assembly very much at all and tweaked a lot of things as I went for ease of assembly and install down the road.

I started with some 6′ long spruce 1x6s that I picked up from Home Depot in a spur of the moment decision one day while we were waiting for Hailey to get out of a physio appointment a couple weeks ago. I brought them home and immediately went to work setting up my tools in our driveway while the kids rode their trikes and wiggle cars in the garage. Before making any cuts however, I went inside to talk to Hailey about what we wanted from this shelf. Height, width, and position were all discussed and we came up with this plan.

We also decided that we wanted the shelves to be 5″ deep and as we all know 😉 1x6s are actually only 5 1/2″ wide so I needed to rip about half an inch off each board. (A rip cut is used when cutting along the grain of a board in order to make it narrower, or to cut a wide board into several narrower boards.)

I  started by cutting all my vertical boards and the top and bottom boards to length. I then ripped all those boards down to 5 1/8″. Why not to 5″ exactly? By leaving the outer frame and all vertical boards slightly deeper, I was able to later smooth over the edges and have each individual shelf butt into its supporting board with no cracks to fill and paint later on. Next was ripping all the remaining scraps down to 5″ exactly and cutting them all to length at 5″ exactly.

I then sanded all the cut edges to a slightly rounded and nicely smoothed edge and started nailing the frame together. It was at this point that I discovered I had miscounted my vertical boards. I only had enough materials for seven vertical supports, not the eight that I required.

*facepalm*

So I brought everything into the garage, locked up both vans in the driveway and called it a day. It was almost supper time anyways.

Bright and early the next morning we made an errand run to the city and picked up the remaining required board as well as a small stack of other lumber that we needed to finish framing our basement. Arriving home midmorning gave me a chance to setup all my tools again and continue working. I made quick work of cutting, ripping, and sanding the eighth vertical board and glued and nailed it in place in line with all the others.

*SIDE NOTE* I chose to use Titebond III to glue this project together as it is the strongest glue in a squeeze bottle I’ve ever come across. It may be overkill for something like this but I had it on hand so ‘Why not?’ I also nailed it together with 2″ brad nails to hold it while the glue dried.

After lunch Hailey came out and helped me choose a layout for the shelf spacing. As detailed and accurate and my plans were, they didn’t quite line up as planned. We ended up with something kind of symmetrical but we both liked the layout and decided to go ahead with it. So after about an hour of gluing and nailing in those little 5″ shelves, we came out with this!

As I was nailing the shelves in I had to trim some shelves to match the cupping of each vertical board but I didn’t try too hard because I wanted it to be imperfect and “rustic”. It went against the grain for me as a finish carpenter but I intentionally left some gaps. 😮

It actually looked really good like this and I almost felt bad painting over it so quickly but the end result was completely worth it.

At this point I decided to add a small 2″ strip to the underside of the top board to use as a way to screw the whole thing to the wall. You’ll see that soon.

The next morning I fenced off a small portion on the garage to keep the kids at bay as I painted the whole thing. We decided to use the leftover paint from our front door and if you remember…

It was purple.

😍

Maybe other guys wouldn’t be man enough to admit it but I LOVE this purple. Hahaha. It’s so rich and vibrant. We may end up with a lot more things in our house being this purple. 😳

I chose to paint after assembly for the sake of not marring the paint on my saw and covering all my pencil marks. What has two thumbs and skipped the need for touchups? THIS GUY!! I also chose to use a brush for the whole thing to keep with the imperfect, “rustic” aesthetic.

So after about two and a half hours of painting *facepalm* we had this.

I didn’t bother painting the back edges as they would be flat against the wall. You can also see the 2″ strip I added to be able to screw it to the wall.

I let it dry for the rest of the day and over night and was scratching at the door the next morning to put it up. So as the kids were eating breakfast and Hailey was still in bed I used a level to mark its placement so it would be level with the bottom of the cabinet next to it and perfectly centred over the coffee bar. I also used my handy dandy stud finder to mark wall stud locations and measured for screw locations on the unit itself.

As soon as Hailey came down to keep an eye on the kids I ran outside and got my drill and some 3″ screws and within 5 minutes it was screwed to the wall and holding mugs.

TA-DA!!

I love it! We’ve already begun buying more mugs to fill out the empty spaces. Thirty five spaces in total. And the whole thing only cost about $40.  🤑 Before the cost of all the mugs that is. *facepalm* $30 for the lumber and $5-10 for the paint. (Although we already owned that. lol)

The best part for me is that the few people who have seen pictures of it, first thought that it was a picture plucked off of Pintrest. Self brag!! Hahaha

Maybe this can be an inspiration for your own shelf, or maybe it’ll just inspire you to invite yourself over for coffee sometime just to be able to pick your favourite mug. 🤗