Shelves in the Den

We've been meaning to do this project for years. Our first attempt at shelves was turning the coat closet in my kitchen into a pantry. Everything that could have gone wrong with that project did. I'm surprised we even attempted adding a shelf to the master bedroom closet.

This project's time had come. Our TV room/den had DVDs and gaming systems everywhere. Plus I'm always complaining that I don't have any storage.

Here's the before. A strange little nook. The part to the left is my laundry room on the other side of the wall. My house has all sorts of these little nooks. I kind of like it; it makes things interesting. It was a creative way to smoosh all the rooms together.

J and I had a really efficient system. We would get the board level, I would hold it while he drilled a pilot hole with a small drill bit. You have to make sure to mark "up" on your board so it doesn't get turned upside down. We would then switch out the drill bit to the larger one for the wall anchor.

I would use the larger drill bit to quickly drill a hole to countersink the screws (so the screw head doesn't stick out).

I would give to drill with the anchor drill bit back to J and he would work on the wall studs. I would take the other drill with the screwdriver head and get the screws started. This was a really easy way to line up the screws with the wall anchors. I would hand it to J and he would finish screwing it in while I switched out the drill bit back to the smaller piece and got everything ready for another board.

We got all the shelf supports up Friday night. Early Saturday we got up for round two. We still don't own a router so I sanded the shelf edges down. I have finally figured out the perfect technique (moving the sander in wide circles while also moving it up and down over the edge) and my edges look fantastic. It just took forever. And since it was a record breaking 112 degrees outside, it was not fun.

J is all ready to paint in this photo. We FINALLY bought a paint sprayer, so after a bit of a learning curve (it wasn't working because the hose wasn't plugged into the air compressor, duh) we got everything painted the same white we painted the room.

I was trying to take a picture and dropped my phone. And I caught it just as it took a picture. I like it.

We were just about done; I just needed to caulk and we had already checked that we still had caulk left over. I made the mistake of saying to J, "This just might be our first project where we've only had to go to the hardware store once!!"

I got out my caulking gun and my caulk was completely dry and wouldn't come out of the tip. It busted out the bottom and got all over my caulking gun. I had to go buy more caulk. But don't worry, we checked the vast knowledge of the internet and found how to store the caulk so that it doesn't happen in the future.

Maybe one day I will achieve my dream of a project where we only make one trip to Lowe's.

Here is why caulking is important. The before.

And the after. 

Look at that beautiful rounded edge! Like a boss. This was before the shelf was pushed all the way in; they don't stick out like that.

That's a special little treat just for me. The hotness that is my J. He was adjusting his cords and I decided that was a good time for the "finished" photo. You're welcome.

J was in Corum's wedding, so that's how we spent our Saturday night. At first it reaaaaaaally sucked being outside while they took the photos. Corum's mom said she had prayed for some cloud cover and wind. She got her wish. Can you see the sky in the background? She got a freaking haboob. Don't ever cross that woman. She has powers.