DIY FARMHOUSE KITCHEN SHELVES FROM BOOKSHELVES, STYLED WITH VINTAGE KITCHENWARE AND EASTER DECOR

Hi Friends and happy weekend!

Kitchen Shelves From Thrifted Bookshelves

Today I'm sharing my new kitchen shelves, made from repurposed bookshelves, and styled with vintage kitchenware and a splash of Easter! 

I almost never share our kitchen. It is situated in a separate room behind our living room. It's small and it needs a lot of TLC.  

When I installed my little DIY Farmhouse Style shelf in our kitchen recently, it got me inspired to do a few more projects, including this one!

This project was a frustrating one to say the least.

When I had this idea to create more storage in the kitchen and close the kitchen off to the back sunroom, I thought it would be easy. Just stand some book shelves on the current kitchen bench. How hard could that be?

Well, I thought wrong!

When I tried to put all the pieces together, nothing seemed to be square or in line. 

There was a lot of frustration and near tears with this project. 

Thankfully and finally, it all worked out! 

Our Kitchen - Before

Here is an honest look from our kitchen overlooking the sunroom. 

The view is quite often lines of drying laundry. 

And the bench above the sink is pretty much a dumping zone. 

We have a large skylight in the roof in the kitchen, so blocking out the light from the sunroom windows wasn't an issue.

Bookshelves

I had a look on Marketplace and found these two solid pine bookcases for $40. 

I did need to cut them down a bit, and I knew I would need to add a bit of width as well. 

I reused the bases to make a new bottom on both bookshelves. I tried to make sure everything was as square as possible before screwing the base on. 

Squaring Everything Up

Here is the first one up to see how it fit. You can see the top is not even. I couldn't tell whether the top of the bookshelf was not level, or the bottom of the bookshelf, or the shelf itself was not level, or if the ceiling frame was not level!

And although the kitchen shelf was the same width as my bookshelves, the roof frame was narrower. Still, if I could get it to line up with the front, I would be happy. 

 I used a scrap piece of pine to try to line it up.

Next I installed a piece of pine in the centre to bulk out the width of the shelves. 

I used a spirit level to get this as straight as possible. I figured when I put the other shelf up and screwed it together it would all just fall into place. (Wrong! Everything seemed to fall out of place!) But I still had high hopes at the time and decided it was time to get the shelves painted. I'd deal with any "inconsistencies" later. 

Let The Painting Begin

I gave the shelves a good clean, light sand, one coat of undercoat and three coats of white enamel (light sanding in between coats). I wanted them to be water resistant as they were going to be close to the sink. 

I also needed to paint my dark wood kitchen shelf and the side of the doorway. 

I gave the wood a light sand, then used my Zinsser 123, and then 3 coats of the same white enamel paint.

Installation

After getting both shelves up (I couldn't wait to finish painting the back of the right hand one), and attaching the panel at the front. I needed to attach the back panel. 

I couldn't screw into the sides of the bookshelves so I needed up screwing two scrap pieces of wood to the top and bottom of the gap.  

This allowed me to screw the back panel onto them. 

I then proceeded to spend a lot of time trying to get everything to line up. The shelves fit snug in the middle, but left a gap at the top and bottom in varying places. They didn't sit straight up and down inline with the top and bottom frames either. 

I ended up leaning on each shelf to line it up, then screwing one to the bottom shelf and the other to the top of the frame. 

Then to cover the gaps that still looked crooked, I used 3cm pine cover strips to create a frame at the front of my shelves to line everything up.

I also cut my cover strips incorrectly TWICE and had to buy more!  Honestly, could anything else go wrong!

I had to leave a small gap on the right hand side for our internet cables that run into the sun room, but this was the least of my worries. 

And with the sign now up, I think I'll lower the top righthand shelf a bit too. 

But all in all, and after a lot of frustration, I got there in the end! 

And I love my new shelves! 

Would I do it again? No way! 😆

My Bakery Sign!

I purchased this very large Bakery sign a short while ago. 

It's made of metal and a whopping 115cms long and 30cms wide! 

Vintage Kitchenware and Easter Decorating!

I couldn't wait to get some of my vintage kitchen goodies from my hutch all styled on my new shelves!

I also decided now as a good a time as any to start my Easter decorating! 

You'll see a few little splashes of Easter throughout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Long Short List

I now have a short list of projects including:

• New benches - We had the benches resurfaced when we first moved in 12 years ago. The coating is now coming off and pitting.   

• A new sink - And while I'm doing the benches I figured we should probably install a new smaller sink given we have minimal bench space. Plus, we don't use the both sinks anyway. 

• A new oven and cooktop - Our current oven leaks and one of the knobs on the cooktop doesn't work properly. It's quite old and will likely stop working sometime soon.

• Repainting the kitchen cabinets with a fresh coat of white enamel - To match in with the new white shelving. 

• Give all the walls a fresh coat of white paint and some faux Sharpie shiplap - In line with our home's Farmhouse style theme. 

• Consider doing something with the spaces above the kitchen cabinets and pantry - They are currently just dust catchers. 

As you can see I have plenty to keep me busy! 

Luckily I've now got a head start on my Easter decorating and look forward to sharing some Easter posts soon!

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Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Take care and stay safe!

 

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