DIY Rustic Wood Floating Shelves

I finished up the last project in the guest bathroom!  And I just love how they turned out! 

If you missed the last few posts I have been working on One Month, One Room, $100 challenge – making over my guest bathroom in one month with less than $100.

I won’t share an entire tutorial because Alicia at Thrifty and Chic did a great job with her tutorial which is what I followed.  But I did change a few things up so I’ll tell you what I did different.  These are a little different than other floating shelves tutorials you may see because they use all long boards, no plywood.  I didn’t have any plywood and didn’t want to spend the money for a big sheet of plywood.  So it was cheaper to do it just regular long boards.  Alicia did her shelves using a 1×6 but said she wished she would have done them with 1×8 or 1×10 to make them deeper.  So I opted to use a 1×8 because I wanted them deeper but my bathroom is small so I couldn’t do quite 1×10 for the depth.  She also did hers 3 foot long but my space only allowed for 2 foot long shelves. 

So here were the supplies I bought for 2 shelves that about 2 foot long.  It cost under $18 for 2 shelves that are about 8 inches deep and 2 foot long.

1 – 1x8x8 ($11.34)- this is the top and bottom of the shelves

1 – 2x2x8 – ($1.75) – this is the back brace piece that you will use to secure shelves to wall

1 – 1x4x8 ($4.67) – this is the side and front of the shelves

Here’s after I had both shelves assembled and just needed to build the supports which you can see in Alicia’s post.

After I sanded everything smooth, I stained it using the same Briarsmoke stain by Varathane that I have used in the rest of the room.  I secured the shelves onto the back brackets with 2 screws from the top of the shelf on either end.  I may add a 3rd one in the middle but they seem very secure.  I made sure to secure the back bracket/brace into a stud.

Here they are all hung and styled!  I just love them and had so much fun filling them up.  They have sort of a farmhouse/spa/beachy style. 

All the wood in this room has really added a lot of warmth to this room that was so bland and white before.

All the decor and accessories came from my stash and things I had used in our previous house guest bathroom.  I did add the larger canister with some sample size toiletries that guests can use if they need or want them.

Just basic square edges on these shelves – secured with nails and wood glue so they were so easy to make.  I haven’t mastered using a Kreg Jig yet (but I hope to soon!) so this project was perfect easy build for me.  I love how the shelves are closed in from the bottom too. 

Can’t wait to reveal the whole room tomorrow! 

Here’s how I am doing on my budget for the challenge:

Spent so far – $38.76

Spent for this project – $17.76 for lumber (already had stain and screws/nails)

Total spent – $56.52

So far so good – under budget!