DIY Corbel Shelves

Well, it has been well over a year and a half since i last posted.  A lot has changed in that time as well.  A lot!  We had bought one workshop then outgrew it, so i sold it and bought the bigger one next door.  It required a complete gut job but we got it done.  I loved the shop, it was perfect.  But, then we decided to sell our house and buy 5 acres about 45 minutes away.  Having all that land meant that i could build a shop and work from home.  So, we sold our new shop, sold our house, lived in a condo for 9 months while our new house and shop was being built.  During that time, we also decided to buy Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. who is the manufacturer of the Sweet Pickins Milk Paint line.  The old owners decided it was time for something new and we were their largest customer.  My husband spent months and months on the small business loan and getting all that figured out and we made it happen!

I now own Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. which manufactures that line of course, the Sweet Pickins Milk Paint line and then our 3rd milk paint line Farmhouse Finishes.  We operate everything out of our large shop that we built and things are going really well!  We are busier than ever and growing quickly.  We have already had to build onto the shop to accommodate for our raw materials and we are getting ready to build a 2nd shop within the next year so i can get back to furniture painting which sadly has had to be put aside.

I know there is so much to tell you guys and go over, but i wanted to jump on here and get this post done about a project i recently complete in my kitchen.  I was sent these corbels by Osborne Wood Products to do a project.  I knew right away the perfect project to use them on because this empty space in my kitchen was begging for some open shelving.

Osborne Wood is my go to place for all my table legs as well.  They make great products and i’ve been ordering from them for years.  In fact, i’m just getting ready to build me a 2nd island for my kitchen and will get my legs from them as well.  If your looking for anything like that, i highly recommend you check them out!

I started with 6 of these corbels.  These are a great size for shelving.

I wanted to keep my shelves simple, so i just used some pine 1×4’s to add a top plate on them and a brace across the back and then the actual shelf is a 1×12.

I had to cut the 1×4 down a bit to look proportionate to my corbel.

To attach the top plate, i just used some glue and then my brad nailer.

I measured 2 inches from the edge and made my mark so i knew exactly where to line up the corbels.

I then screwed the corbel on from the top of the shelf.  I countersunk the screws a bit and then just filled and sanded before painting.

After attaching the corbels, i used a 1×4 as the back brace.  This bulked up the shelf a little as well as gave it something so that all components could be tied together and made the shelf tight.  It also gave me something to screw into the studs on my wall.

I made small notches with my jigsaw to go around the back plate.

Then i used my Kreg Jig to make pocket holes on the cross bars to screw into the corbels and the shelf.

The pocket screws really tie everything together and make it all sturdy.  If you don’t have one and you build anything, you should definitely invest in one!

The completed shelf!  I made 3 of them all the same.

After giving them a light sand, i hung them in my kitchen.  You can see on the baseboards where i marked the studs with tape.  I was also shiplapping my kitchen at the same time so this was the perfect time to get these hung.  I just screwed the shelves to the wall from both the backplate and from the top and then just filled the holes and sanded them before painting.  I also caulked all the seams after i got the shelves hung for a more seamless/finished look.

Next up was paint!  I was going to spray, but i decided last minute to just brush everything.

The shelves turned out perfect and was exactly what i needed for that space.

Ive gone back and forth with having hooks on the back plate on the bottom shelf for towels and things, and still haven’t made up my mind what i like best.

Thanks again to Osborne Wood for providing me with the corbels!  If you have any questions on this project leave a comment and we will get back to you soon!

Paint color on everything – Sherwin Williams Pure White

Here’s to the 1st blog post in a year and a half!