DIY Bedroom Decor - DIY#1 Hanging Wall Shelves

It's a tough time for the world right now. Coronavirus really took the world by storm. I hope everyone is staying safe whether at work or at home.

As for me, I'm making use of this time for some DIY projects. I decided to help my sister to re-decorate her bedroom. Well, she'd been asking for my help for almost a year but I just didn't have the time. I was busy with work and studying. Now, since it's quarantine period, I thought what else to do than make use of this time to help her with the bedroom? So that's exactly what I'm going to share with you guys in this post.

But I'm not exactly sharing the bedroom makeover just yet. I'm only going to share three DIY projects that I did prior to that. These DIYs vary in terms of scale. There's one small, one medium, and one quite large-scale project. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure most people can do it as well. Oh btw, I realized that this post is going to be quite long. So I'm only featuring one DIY here. The other two will be featured in another post.

I even documented these projects on my youtube channel. Go check the video out if you would enjoy watching me doing the projects instead of reading about it here.

Well, if you are still here, then let's get this project started!

DIY #1 Hanging Wall Shelves

So this first DIY is the one which I considered a quite large-scale project. I'm saying this because for this project, I actually worked with some power tools. I used a jigsaw and a power drill. Other supplies needed besides the power tools are as follows:

+ Pine Pallet Wood
+ Flat wood bracket
+ 9mm Jute rope
+ Wall hooks + Wall plugs
+ Wood stain
+ Sander/ Sandpaper

1. Cutting the wood

Like I mentioned earlier, I did use some power tools for this first DIY. I started this DIY from scratch. I have some extra pallet wood from my previous project (I built a bed frame using the pallet wood). So I decided to use them for this DIY instead of buying new pallet wood. This particular pallet wood is pine wood. There are lots of different types of pallet wood but pine pallet wood is the best to work with (at least for me) for interior decoration. They are easy to cut, sand, and stain/paint. if you're looking for industrial or farmhouse aesthetics, pinewood can give you that.

First, I dismantled the wood pieces from the whole chunk. If you buy raw pallet wood like this, you'll have to do a lot of prep work. That's a lot of work honestly. But for the whole chunk, which costs me only RM10, I couldn't care less. You can buy reconditioned/refurbished pinewood from Shopee or Lazada, or even from any wood supplier near you, but it would cost you a lot. The price ranges from RM10-RM15 for one piece of a 1" x 4" x 4' wood. So if you're planning to do a bigger project, you'll have to do the math.

I'm going to build 2 hanging wall shelves. So I cut 4 pieces of 50cm wood, each shelf will have 2 pieces of wood bound together. You can choose whatever length you want. I went with 50cm because it would fit my wall just nicely.

2. Drilling some holes

Next, I drilled one hole on each end of the wood. These holes are for the jute rope that is going to hold the shelves. So after drilling make sure you test the size of the hole. Make sure the jute rope can go through the hole. If not, you will have to drill a bigger hole.

3. Sanding the wood

I sanded the wood using my drill and a flap disc. Flap disc is meant for sanding metal most of the time. But I found it useful to be used on wood as well. If you have a sanding machine, that would be better. But if you don't have any power tools, afraid not. You can still use sanding paper and sand them manually. Just got to put a little bit more effort there.

4. Binding the wood

I bind the two wood pieces together using a bracket. I didn't have any flat brackets. So I flattened two L-shape brackets and screwed them onto the wood. It doesn't have to be too sturdy. As long as the two pieces of wood are attached to each other, that's good enough. So I used one bracket for each shelf and screwed them in the middle.

5. Staining the wood

I already have a can of wood stain from a previous project. It was the 'golden pine' wood stain from Seamaster. Since I already planned to incorporate a lot of gold and yellow color in the bedroom, it was a perfect color to use for the shelves. You can personally choose your own color of stain for the shelves. Mahogany, rosewood, walnut, just to name a few.

Before staining, wipe your pinewood with a damp cloth to remove the dust and debris from the sanding earlier.Then, use a brush or a clean rag to spread the wood stain on your pinewood.

6. Drilling the wall

I traced the length of my shelves using masking tape on the wall. I did this because it would give me a better look at the layout for my shelves. One shelf will be hung slightly higher than the other. After that, I measured and marked the drilling spot for my shelves. I set them both to 30cm from the shelves (but I kinda readjusted a little bit after that).

I started drilling with a smaller drill bit then change to a bigger bit. Doing this made drilling easier instead of drilling with a bigger bit straight away because the concrete wall is super hard. Most western houses use drywall which is way softer and easier to drill. But Malaysian (southeast asian too?) houses, we use concrete walls. Also, make sure you drill deep enough so that your wall plug can fit all the way into the wall. I used a normal wall hook, which you can get from most hardware stores or even supermarkets, and spray painted them gold.

7. Hanging and finishing the shelves

Now it's time to hang the shelves and finish them off. First I insert the rope into the holes on the wood. I tied a knot for both holes on one side, but I left the rope on the other side as it is. I'm going to tie the other side once I have hung them on the wall.  So I went ahead and hang them and adjusted the rope length. It was slightly shorter than 30cm (which was my initial shelf-to-hook length). Once the shelves are adjusted and balanced, I tied the rope on the other side into a knot. I then cut the excess rope that was hanging just to give it a clean finish. You can also leave the excess rope and dissolve the excess to give a tassel-look.

So there you go. Two DIY hanging wall shelves. Two more DIYs will follow up in my next blog post. Thanks for reading and be sure the check my Youtube channel as well! Have a good day! :)