DIY Farmhouse Shelves

In my latest project, my husband and I built these gorgeous open farmhouse shelves for our dinning room. They are actually pretty simple to make. Below, well share how we made these shelves so you can make them too!

Where to put open shelves in your home?

There are so many places you can put open farmhouse shelves in your home. In a kitchen over a countertop, over an entryway table, or even on your dining room over your buffet table. Thats what we did!

What supplies do I need open shelves?

First off you going to need lumber. You can go to a home improvement store, or, like us, your loves lumber yard. We went to get barn wood for our dinning table. WE had enough left over to make open shelves for our dinning room.

Supplies:

1. lumbar
2. planer
3. level
4. measuring tape
5. stable aw
6. brackets
7. screws
8. drill
9. stain
10. paint brush and rag
11. stealant

Step one: Cut your lumber

You can have the Lumberyard cut your wood to specific sizes or if you have a table saw you can rip the boards yourself. We also had to run our boards trough the planer. We cut ours to the width of our buffet. So they were 3 feet x 9 feet.

Step two: Stain and seal your boards

You can stain your boards with a brush or a rag, which ever you like. Just be sure to allow 24 hours of dry time in-between your second coat. Be sure to sand between each coat of stain. This allows the wood grain to penetrate and therefore allowing the second coat of stain to adhere better. After another 24 hours, apply a sealant.

Read the instructions completely and allow the correct dry time for each coat of stain and sealant. This project took me several days to complete so you can’t rush it. I used Minwax wood finish penetrating stain Early American number 230 and only used one coat as I wanted to match the wood to the ceiling beams so one coat was sufficient.

I waited 24 hours before sanding the boards and applying my first coat of Minwax polycrylic protective finish in clear satin. Because I wanted a more Matte look on the shelves instead of a high-gloss, so I went with a polycrylic instead of a polyurethane.  I then waited another two hours before sanding again and applying the second coat of polycrylic. Then I allowed 24 hours to dry before we hung the shelves.

Step Three: hang your shelves

Now it’s time to hang. Be sure to buy the right size brackets for your boards. We got ours on amazon. Next, measure the placement of your shelves and mark with a pencil. Level each board before screwing in the bracket to be sure it’s even.

Step four: Decorate your open shelves

The last step is to decorate. I like to decorate with ideas I know I’ll use in that space. This makes decorating practical, which is always helpful!

Be sure to pin for later

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Chat soon,

Kori