Creating a Reclaimed Wood Shelf - aka A West Elm Hack

Our bathroom (aka the "Master Bath") actually has quite a bit of storage. Problem is, it's pretty much what came with the house - as in, store-bought and with absolutely no character whatsoever.

When Brian and I decided that we should probably put something above the toilet in our bathroom to fill the space, I suggested we add some shelving. I eagerly started my search for something with a more weathered, character-filled look.

The option I liked the best was from West Elm (see photo below). The problem? The shelves they sold were way smaller than what we were looking for, and the price was a bit steep. I mean, c'mon....almost $100 for one shelf and two brackets?! That's not even in the size I want?! Yeah, um, no thanks.

Source

I figured I could make one myself. I mean, it was basically just a piece of wood that was stained. What's so hard about that? So, with that attitude I glued two pine 1x4's together and stained them a color that I thought would look decent. Too bad it didn't turn out well at all, so I was back to square one. Poop.

Before I started my second attempt, I scoured the interwebz for some guidance on how to move forward so I wouldn't spend a fortune on wood and stain. I ended up locating an awesome tutorial that gave some great tips on making new wood look reclaimed and weathered. Their project focused on building a piece of furniture - since this is shelving, I'll share what worked best for this project so you can (hopefully!) recreate it easily at home.

What You'll Need

Tools:

• A level
• A drill
• A hammer
• A Phillips-head screwdriver
• A circle saw
• Electric sander (you don't really need this, but it sure makes things easier!)
• One staining brush
• One or two old towels for wiping up stain

Materials:

• One 1x8 wood board - I would suggest softer woods like whitewood or poplar (poplar is what we used) that will be more accepting of what you do to it to achieve the reclaimed, weathered look
• Two 7" mounting brackets
• Four 6 x 1/2" wood screws to attach the brackets to the shelf
• Four anchors and screws to mount the shelf to the brackets and the wall
• Half pint of stain of your choice - I would recommend a medium-to-darker stain to achieve a more character-filled, weathered look
• One or more small packers of test stain (these cost about 30 cents each)
• Half pint of oil-based polyurethane
• Flattened cardboard box or tarp to hold spills and accidents
• A freezer bag full of nails
• 120 and 220-grit sand paper

Instructions

1.) Measure the area you'd like to place the shelf in. Once you have that measurement, measure and cut the wood to the width you need.

2.) On a test piece of wood, apply test stain to determine which one you would like to go with. Stain can look totally different in the store than at home, so if you're able to find the small packets of test stain to determine which color would work best in your space, I would highly suggest you do so. I found a selection of 30 cent samples at Menards, which was extremely helpful for me since I'm the most indecisive person ever and a lot of the pressure of choosing just one stain was lifted.

I ended up choosing the American Walnut. And no, it wasn't because it was patriotic, in case you were wondering.

3.) This is the first fun part - take the freezer bag full of nails and slam it against the wood on all sides. This will create nicks and crannies in the wood, which will be visible once it is stained. For maximum effectiveness, look at something that makes you mad (for me, it's looking at a photo of Kim Kardashian....ugh, phony publicity hoe!! GRRRRRR!!) and take out your aggression on the wood.

Or maybe picture Darth Vader hovering over your shoulder, chanting "Release your anger!!"

Then, take a nail out of the bag and place it on its side. Bang on it a few times with the hammer until you see the indentations. Do this sporadically around the wood.

Lastly, take your hammer and whack it a few times here and there, just for good measure. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!

4.) Now for the not-so-fun part - sanding! Booooo. I hate sanding. It's tedious, it's messy, and just one round of sanding is never enough. But it's necessary, unless you're a fan of getting lots of splinters. Since the wood was already pre-sanded, I just used 120-grain sanding paper, which did the trick for me. Depending on how smooth you like it, you can increase or decrease the the level of roughness based on your preferences. Also make sure you sand the edges so they're slightly rounded to achieve the old and weathered look.

5.) After sanding, wipe down with a washcloth to remove any sawdust. Also vacuum/sweep up the area you're working in so no sawdust gets stuck to the shelf while staining.

6.) It's finally time for staining! Carefully open the container and gently dip your staining brush into the stain, only just dipping it in (you don't want to get too much stain on the brush, otherwise it can get gloopy and drippy). Brush it gently across the board, going in the direction of the grain.

After staining one row, immediately wipe off the excess stain. Apply some pressure as you're wiping it off to ensure it gets into the grain of the wood. Continue the process until all sides are stained except one. Now is when you'll notice all of the nail and hammer grooves in the wood, which should be more visible in the photo below. If not, maybe you need glasses. ;)

7.) After all but one of the sides dry for about two hours, turn the shelf around and stain the final side. Repeat the staining process detailed above. Let the entire shelf dry for a minimum of 24 hours.

...I forgot to mention that during this entire time, Owen was on supervisory duty (don't worry, I was in an open garage and he was outside with Brian, well out of range of fumes/fine wood particles!). He made sure I was on task and within our budget, while at the same time trying to distract me from noticing his attempt at escaping his boss chair. You can't slip out of the harness without me noticing, kiddo! Mom sees all. ;)

8.) To seal the wood, apply a clear protective finish after the stain has set. We used an oil-based satin clear polyurethane, since I didn't want a glossy finish.

This, in my opinion, is the most tedious part - I ended up doing three coats on one side (lightly sanded with 220-grit sandpaper in-between coats) because when I banged the polyurethane can closed, it splashed some on the shelf...I didn't realize that happened until after it had dried. Oh well, live and learn!

9.) After the final coat (you can do two-three coats, depending on how much wear and tear you're expecting the shelf to have), allow it to dry for 24 hours in a cool, dry place.

10.) Once it's completely dry, attach the brackets to the bottom of the shelf. I had Brian do this part since he's much steadier with a drill and screwdriver than I am. Also, I would recommend screwing the brackets in on an even surface, so you probably shouldn't use the top of a toilet (it was more of a placeholder anyway).

Then, screw it into the wall wherever you'd like to place it - in our case, it was in our bathroom. Make sure it's level so you don't have stuff dropping on your head randomly. Also, if you aren't drilling into studs (fyi: you may need a drill for this part), make sure you use hollow wall anchors to make sure there's enough support for the shelf.

Aaaaaand here she is! I seriously struggled with the lighting situation, since the shelf is in a bit of an alcove and it's difficult to get natural light there, even under the best of circumstances. I pulled out every photography trick in my book to get some halfway decent shots, so hopefully these are up to par. I also put pretty things on it to make it look more lived-on...as you can easily see, I'm not quite sure how exactly we'll decorate this shelf, but I'm sure we can figure something out.

And here's how it looks in relation to the rest of the bathroom (more or less). To fill the space below the shelf, we'll be adding a towel rack in the near future. But, for the time being draping towels over the door should do.

Doesn't it look perty? It's not exactly like the West Elm shelf - in fact, I think I like ours better! A lot more our style, and it honestly didn't cost us that much because we had a sander and many other supplies already.

Anyone else complete any "hack" projects lately? Any questions about the staining/sanding/polyurethaning process I didn't address?