DIY Decorative Shelf~

It had been a while since I built something new and I was really craving a creative challenge.

I decided to buy a 2'X4' piece of mdf and see if I could make a shelf out of it.

***spoiler alert picture***

It ended up being a really fun project and not as complicated as I expected it to be.  

To save me some time I had The Home Depot make a few cuts for me. I believe they'll do 10 cuts free of charge. I wouldn't do that again for this type of project because their cuts aren't precision cuts and I had to recut the boards on the table saw when I got home anyway to get them straight.  I had them cut 3-6'' pieces from the 2' side and then 2-6'' pieces in the other direction.  

I took the 2 longer pieces and used them for the sides of the shelf. I drew a design on the bottom of one of the boards and then cut it out using the bandsaw.  I traced the shape onto the other side board and cut it out to match.  

The side boards ended up being about 30'' long.  

Initially I had them cut 3 smaller boards thinking that I'd have the top and 2 shelves be identical, but I decided to make the top board a half inch bigger in both directions so I could route it still have it be bigger.  I just lucked out that it matched so well because I really didn't know how much of it would be shaved off because of my router bit. It just happened to be exactly half inch.  

Here is a picture of the top and the sides. 

I didn't attach anything until I had everything cut out.

 It's just balanced to give me an idea of how things were coming together.   

Once I had the sides placed, 

I measure the distance between the boards to know what size the shelves needed to be.  

They were about 22.5'' long.  

I knew the decorative front pieces would be the trickiest part for me. 

I taped two pieces of paper together and drew half of the design on one side of the paper.

I had to do it a few different times before I came up with one that I liked.  

After figuring out the design, 

I folded the papers in half and cut them out so they would mirror each other perfectly. 

I traced the papers onto the board that was the same length as the shelves and used a bandsaw to cut them out.  

It's hard to make them really match exactly because it's hard to cut things out perfectly on a bandsaw.

It's just one of those things that I can't over analyze or it'd make me crazy.  

The last piece was a hanging  board.  It's 3'' tall and 22.5'' wide. I pre-drilled holes into the middle of the ends and attached it directly under the top of the shelf.  

I glued the pieces together and tacked them into place with a pneumatic nail gun.

I decided I'd like to use it in our office to hold some of my crafty knick knacks....but the office was kind of a disaster area, so I ended up painting one of the walls. 

I didn't want to spend any money, so I just picked a yellow color that we already had. I found some scrap pieces of boards in the garage that I could paint and use as make-shift trim.  

I kind of like painting shelves the same color as the wall. I think it blends well.  

It's nice have a place to stick all of the little things that junk up the office.   

That's about it! Not too difficult if you have access to a few power tools and it was pretty inexpensive!