Hi all! I’m April from Uncookie Cutter and I’m excited to be guest hosting here on Old House to New Home. I wanted to share with you all my new hanging shelf that I’m in love with. It was a really quick and easy project that has a huge impact.
We moved to Oklahoma in January from Virginia. I wanted a new house in a new neighborhood and what we ended up with was an old fixer upper in a wonderful older neighborhood. So far we are unexpectedly loving every minute of it. One of the great things is I just keep finding cool stuff in the yard to make into furniture, like my tree stump end table.
I found this beautiful piece of wood leaning on an old fence post when we first moved in, so grabbed it but had no idea what I was going to do with it.
I looked at it for awhile, and recently started working on our dining table. I thought this would be a cool looking sideboard for the table. I originally thought about doing iron pipes for legs, like my friend Emily did HERE. I love her table, but iron pipes are pricey and I’ve used them a bit around this space, so I kept thinking.
I’ve got an industrial thing sort-of-kind-of going on in here, so chain kept entering into my thoughts. Chains are industrial, right? When I built my rope shelves, I thought about using chain, but decided to stick with the rope. Then it hit me, why not turn this piece of wood into a hanging shelf/sideboard/thing-y with chain? Easy peasy!
First, I started sanding, sanding, sanding. That took some time, because it was in kind of rough shape. I used all different kinds of sanders, just going until is was nice and smooth. The sanding will also help get any “friends” out that are living in the wood. I also had the exterminator hit it with his special juice when he was here a while back, just to make sure.
Then I drilled four holes into the board. I tried to make them as even and square as I could.
I know they don’t LOOK even, but they actually are a rectangle. This will make a difference when we go to hang it.
Now it’s time to stain. I really wanted it to stand out against the wall, so I went dark with a couple of coats of Minwax Jacobean.
Next I filled the cracks and gaps with epoxy. If used correctly, it does a nice job. You have to work quick, but I really like using it because it makes the board much sturdier and will give you a nice, even surface.
After filling, I immediately scraped the excess off so it’s smooth. You have to work quick, it dries fast. Just mix a little at a time.
Then a little more sanding.
Then three coats of Polyurethane and the board was done.
I looked up and a sideboard in a dining room sits 36″ normally. So I marked that spot on the wall. I looped the chain through the holes so it holds it underneath, then I just sorta held the chains until I thought it looked “right”. So a bunch of measuring and math, I found the middle of the wall and the exact places for my two wall hangers.
Here’s a little hint on drywall anchors. I love this kind and despise the kind where you drill and hole and hammer in a bracket that is supposed to open up and grip the wall. Those only work about half the time for me and I end up throwing them and becoming an angry mess with big holes in my wall. I realize it’s probably user error-but I have never once messed these up. They are pretty much fool proof. First I drill a small hole, just to start and make sure I’m not on a stud. If I hit a stud, great! No need for an anchor. But if there is no stud, I just screw these in with a simple screwdriver and then they are ready to go.
Then I just screw my hangers on, loop the chain on and that was it! I found both the hangers and chain at Wal-Mart. I had to bend the chain a bit and take off a bunch of extra, but that was easy.
So, one more note, I also had to do a bunch of touch ups. I painted the screws holding the hangers up black to match. And I had a few spots on the wall, so those had to be touched up as well.
NOW I was done. Wait, I had to add a bunch of pretty things.
Now? Yep…done
It makes a pretty nice “sideboard” and a unique addition for very little money. I used leftover stain and poly (it didn’t take much at all) and so all I bought was chain and hangers- less that $10. And if you need stain and poly, you could just get those little samplers and the whole project would cost you less than $20. I love inexpensive projects and this Reclaimed Wood Hanging Shelf is the perfect example of one!
Once I got it all set up, I brought in my new dining table. Check out all the details on how I built the concrete top table HERE!
Thanks for reading and I’d love for you follow me on social media!
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Thanks so much for having me, Amanda!
Have a wonderful day!
April
Thanks again for having me, Amanda!
I was so happy to have you! I need you to come make me one of those tables for my house? I don’t think a cement table would be too much to ship right? 🙂
April, I love this new shelf with you new dining room table! It looks fantastic and your table is beautiful! Great job!
Cat
Thanks Cat!
Hi, April ~ LOVE this shelf! Such a unique idea, and I love how it looks with your table! And the brick detail hanging behind is such a beautiful touch. Awesome job!
Thank you so much Tiffany!
Isn’t her table just awesome?? I need her to come make me one!
This turned out amazing! April did a wonderful job, I am loving this idea.
Thanks Emily!
I love the “live wood” look… also — Oklahoma?! me too!
Hi Heather, and thanks! I think I’m remember briefly chatting with you on your blog, you were featured somewhere but now I can’t recall. We are loving Oklahoma!
This beautiful and so creative! That is a neat way to fill the cracks too. Btw, love your floors! I can’t wait until we redo the main floors in our house.