Saturday Project: Shelves Recycled

When I was growing up, my mom had a sewing room.  It had fake wood paneling on the walls and cheap linoleum on the floor.  It was filled with fabric and sewing machines.  The drawers were full of thread and scissors and piled high on the shelves were patterns for every shape and size.  The linoleum was always covered with bits of material and thread.  Everything from the desk, to the shelves was that awful brown that was so popular back in the 70's.  A few years back my parents decided to remodel the sewing room.  They ripped out the old desk and shelves and replaced everything with gleaming white cupboards and tables from Home Depot.

When I heard they were getting rid of the shelves, I asked them to bring them to me.  I knew they would come in handy someday.  These shelves have sat in my garage for the past 3 years.  It has taken me that long to decide exactly what I wanted to do with them.  Here's what they looked like when they used to hang in the sewing room.

I looked through literally  100's of photos and this is the only one I could find that showed the shelves.  Theresa may not appreciate me putting yet another picture of her up on my blog, but hey my niece Riley sure was a cute baby!

I had the husband take 2 shelves down to Home Depot to get them cut.  I originally thought that I could get three 27 in. shelves out of them.  We didn't measure the shelves before we had them cut and as it turned out, we were only able to get two 27 in. shelves.  I figured I could get started on what I had and that I would get another one cut later.  Then, as I was looking at the smaller pieces I realized that there was a wall in my bedroom, where those shelves might just fit perfectly and....I was right!  So, now I got 4 shelves out of 2.

First, I sanded them down.  The shelves are MDF, so when I sanded them all I got was that chalky look.  Sorry, no pictures.  Then I primed them with some Rust-oleum white primer, and then some gray primer.

Then I gave them a couple coats of Rust-oleum's Dark Walnut in a Satin finish.

I found the brackets for the shelves at Home Depot for like 7 bucks a package.

I gave these a quick coating of Rust-oleum's Dark Walnut to match the shelves and here is the finished product.

These are the smaller shelves.  The ones that just happened to fit perfectly without me even measuring them.
Not the best pictures, since I took them at night with the flash, but I couldn't wait!  I am so excited!  I think they look great and they fill that little niche by the closet perfectly.  I'm not exactly loving the stuff I have on the top shelf, but it will do for now.  I'm not sure if the longer shelves are going to work for what I had originally planned so I'll have to get back to you on those. 

So, what do you all think?  Not bad for some recycled shelves, huh?  I think this project cost me about 25 dollars total.  The hardware for the shelves was 14 dollars for two.  I bought one can of spray paint, and I already had the primer.  The only other thing I had to buy was drywall anchors and they were about 2 dollars a package.  I love the end result!  Leave a comment, and let me know what you think!  I love hearing from you.  If aren't following my blog yet, you should!  I've got some great projects coming up.


*Next on Saturday Project:  Upholstered King Size Headboard

*Oh, and I linked this post to these link parties:























I joined the party at  Creative Jewish Mom!