Once upon a time, there was a girl who was trying to put the final touches on her basement. She came across an over the couch shelf on Houzz.com and wanted to do something like that over her couch.
Not the big storage cabinet type of shelf, which is very cool and spacious, but a smaller shelf that could hold several storage crates, baskets, or home decor whatnots.
So she purchased a 2″ x 12″ x 8′ piece of lumber.
She banged it up a little to give it a faux rustic, reclaimed wood look inspired by the tutorial she found, here. (She needs to practice her technique, some, but that another story).
Then she gave it several coats of vinegar/steel wool natural stain.
Her husband hung the shelf for her, but then she said, “this stain is too dark. We need to take that shelf down so I can paint it.”
So the shelf came down.
She painted it white, and even gave it a chippy, aged look.
The shelf was re-installed over the couch once again.
She looked at it from this angle and that, and she finally said, “this shelf is too busy for the rest of this decor in this basement. We need to take that shelf back down so we can strip the paint, and I can start over.”
So the shelf came down once again.
It was put on in the yard. She got her power sander out and started sanding the paint away.
She heard her husband’s voice tell her, “you’re not doing that right. Do it like this.” She quirked a smile, shrugged her shoulders, moved out of the way and said, “then show me how.”
He began to sand the shelf the way he thought it should be done, and she was ready to jump right back in, but then her husband just kept sanding.
So she wandered off to take a nap until it was done. (More like a load of laundry and dishes that needed washing.)
Once the paint was all sanded off, she woke from her nap, went back outside and applied a few coats of and antique maple stain that she had in her box of stains.
The shelf was hung back up. She took one look and said, “now this shelf is juuuust right!”
Actually she still isn’t completely happy with it, but it’s juuust right enough to keep.
And that’s the story of Goldilocks and the Over the Couch Shelf.
The End
You can see more basement update posts, here.
Anne@DesignDreams says
That looks great! love the stain colour!
sharleen says
Great story… Love it. you sure are making the basement look cozy 🙂
Cheryl in Wisconsin says
Ya gotta love a guy that will take your tedious chore away. Good work.
Sherry says
It looks juuuust right to me Amy! You sound like me, taking 36 hours to do a 1 hour project… it’s happened to me a lot lately! I have to remind myself less is more.
chris aka monkey says
amy it might be the brackets throwing you off try some plain wood brackets, they aren’t that expensive and you can stain them to match,gives a more hefty look to shelf xx
Feral Turtle says
HAHAHAHA A little like Tom Sawyer, this story was! Except the dishes and laundry part cuz Tom would have somehow got out of that too! I thought your pictures were from houzz when I first looked at them until I realized that was your route 66 chair! Looks fantastic. I have to say your white chippy paint actually looked like the real thing. I have some old white boards in the shed and I could have sworn yours was taken right out of there.
Bliss says
Well Goldi, I’ll say this…. this mama bear would of lived with it the first time so I admire the fact that you got papa bear on board and had a resolution that worked.