Kitchen DIY // Reclaimed Wood Shelves

As a follow-up to the Kitchen Renovation post a few weeks ago, I thought it might be nice to give a little more background on our reclaimed wood shelves.

We actually completed the shelves several weeks after we finished the tile, paint, and crown molding. I really wanted some exposed wood shelving to add an "organic" touch to the space, but we didn't have a lot of room to work with. I might like lots of white, but I don't want things to be sterile. Lucky for us, we found a whole bunch of AWESOME mahogany boards at the Antique Mall back home earlier in the summer, so we decided to use some of it as shelving. My parents actually did this in their kitchen, so we stole their great idea. :)

My Dad found these shelving brackets at Menards. They're meant to have a shelf set on top, but my Dad is a genius and decided to insert them into the wood for a "floating shelf" look.

We followed my Dad's lead by cutting our shelves to-size and drilling holes into the wood just big enough to fit each shelf bracket post. Once the holes were in place, we very carefully measured our spacing on the tiles to ensure everything lined up. We then drilled holes (HOLES!) into our brand new tile. (Tyler was a bit nervous...). We bought a special drill bit at Menards specifically designed for tile and marked each spot with painters tape. The tape really helped steady the drill bit and reduce some of the dust.

We then inserted wall plugs to ensure our brackets would hold a significant amount of weight and then attached the brackets with screws. After everything was successfully installed, we simply slid the wood right over the brackets.  Cool, huh?

I absolutely the way they turned out! It's a great way to keep clutter off of our counters and bring some warmth to the room.