rustic kitchen shelves

I have at last completed the last project I had on the list for our kitchen renovation! We finished moooost of the kitchen last year, but a couple projects had dragged on, like the recent floor refinishing, annnnd now, building shelves by the sink.

Ta-da!! (Before on left, After on right)

I really like the open kitchen shelves that are 'trending' these days. We didn't include open shelves in our kitchen remodel (mostly for storage and dusting reasons), but I had been thinking that it would be fun to do shelves on either side of the sink cupboards to give that space more visual interest. And now that I have this tornado wood, which looks so glossy-yet-vintage on my cabinet make-over - the stars aligned!

The problem was, how to build them? I'd looked at floating shelves (too thick and heavy), shelf arch supports (too big - don't know exactly what they're called) and googled for various methods of DIY'ing it. I was unsatisfied, until I found these gems in the hardware department of Lowes last week:

They were originally stainless steel, so I definitely spray painted them with my trusty Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze, along with 24 additional shorter screws for connecting wood pieces.

So I scribbled some plans on a piece of paper, wandered around measuring, and cut/sanded lightly/stained/poly'd more tornado wood for the occasion:

Old wood seriously absorbs stain like no other. This is just one thin coat of Dark Walnut by MinWax, rubbed off lightly with a paper towel right after application, followed by two-three coats of Poly by Rustoleum. I used to use the Polyurethane shown here, but switched to the Rustoleum for the soap-and-water cleanup abilities - totally worth it!

I had also purchased four slats of 1/4" thick birch wood, which I also stained, to use as shelf supports. I pre-drilled my screw holes in the birch wood but not the tornado wood (since the tornado wood is less dense). So the assembly looked like this:

Pretty soon I had one side complete! (The shelves *are* level - it's just hard to show that in the photo)

It was at this point, oh so sadly that the Thunder lost I realized I had cut all the shelves the same size, but the other side of the sink had a bigger space between trim and cupboards. If I put the same size shelves on both sides, I'd have this wonky extra space. Sad face.

I had known this already and had even thought to minimize the wonky-ness by making the shelf extend to the trim, but had somehow forgotten! Moral: measure, measure, measure. And be patient to redo what goes wrong, because it will make all the difference in the 'shininess' of the finished product! Soo I cut/sanded/stained/poly'd/assembled two new shelves for the other side, and the next day I finally completed it. Happy face.

Price Breakdown: (I've noticed I'm pretty lazy at including this so)

wood - free (tornado wood!! accidentally typed rontado wood...sounds cool like a brand, doesn't it?)
ORB spray paint - free (leftover - one $8 can lasts me a zillion projects. that's a scientific unit)
birch support slats - 4 x $1.58 = $6.32
metal support thingos - 3 pkgs x $3.22 = $9.66
extra screws - $1.28 (some were free leftovers from the utility drawer)
dark walnut minwax stain - free (leftover - is about $10 for a big can)
polyurethane - $10 (approx - I bought a new can because I was out, but barely used any!)

Total: $27.26! With *lots* of poly left over for Future Projects.

I love how the shelf supports look nice and minimal, disappearing under the dark shelves. I had debated painting the supports white instead but I'm definitely glad I ORB'd them instead. And the knots and rough patches in all the wood make me really happy with their earthy charm. I'm having all sorts of fun decorating with random knick knacks from various rooms of the house :)

And now the question is...which room will get some tornado-wood-loving next?? Apparently I am on a subconscious quest to incorporate tornado wood into every room of the house *_*