Quick and Easy Bar Shelves

Hello! Today I’m sharing with you my super easy Saturday project.  The hardest part was waiting for the paint and stain to dry.

I have wanted to put up shelves over the bar for a long time but other projects would always come first.  I was wanting to do true floating shelves where you build and attach an internal frame then wrap wood around it so that you can’t see what’s holding it up, but that all changed when I decided to go easy on myself and just use brackets instead.  The cold and rainy weather has yet to let up and since our shop has no heat I just couldn’t make myself spend any more time out there than necessary.

Here’s kind of where it started.  A little shelf and a print I don’t really care for anymore.  I had already painted the walls Sea Salt by Sherwin-Williams and painted the brick bar Swiss Coffee.  I can’t find my real before photos, so this is as “before” as it gets.

Ben was headed to the hardware store so I added to his list four 4″ angle brackets and a framing grade 2 x 10.  He seemed a bit nervous about selecting the board for me.  Apparently, somewhere along the way I have been given the unearned reputation of being picky about color, grain and type of wood used.  Maybe not entirely unearned, but I do like to believe that I’m easy going.

Once he returned I washed any oil off the brackets then painted them with some left over black spray paint with a hammered finish.

Ben had the store cut down the board into two 5′ sections.  I used the belt sander with 80 grit paper on them.  It took the major bits of roughness down and scrubbed off the ink marks stamped on them.  Then I used an orbit sander with 220 paper to smooth it out a little more.  I didn’t want my stain to look blotchy so I used a pre-stain conditioner.  That’s when I discovered that I missed sanding out a whole stamp!

All those passes I did with two different sanders and I still missed a whole stamp.  Well, I knew which board was being used for the top shelf.  The boards were then stained with Early American from Minwax.

Once the brackets were dry (it took three coats to get all the sides) I found the studs and attached the brackets upside down with black decking screws.

The boards were then set on top and screwed from the bottom.

I dug through cupboards and closets and came up with a bunch of random stuff to decorate with.  Then with the help of Sister the arranging began.  Things went up and came back down many times.  Old family photos, a bottle collection my dad started me on years ago, some pottery I made and little knick-knacks made the cut.

I also swapped out the print with a mirror that hasn’t had a home for a few years.

With the bar and walls painted months ago, having the shelves done means that this area is officially done and can be checked off my massive project list.

Before and after:

So, what do you think?  Is this something you would like to try?