The Project Results: Close up of new shelving
First I decided how deep I wanted the shelves to be. I decided to make the lowest shelf a bit narrower (8.5 inches) than the other two (12.5 inches) so that it would not encroach on his workspace. The shelves length was constrained by the adjoining wall and the window placement to 24 inches. A trip to the local hardware store (Home Depot) netted brackets to hold up the shelves and some MDF to make the shelves themselves. I also wanted the shelves to look a bit more substantial so I decided to edge the MDF with some scrap wood we had lying around the garage.
The theme of my son's room is planes and fighter jets, so I wanted the brackets to be silver. Of course the ones I liked only came in black, so I spray painted them silver using Rust-oleum primer and paint (Painter's Touch 2x). My preparation and painting method is as follows. First I scuff sanded (ok, dh (dear hubby) did this) the metal brackets. Next I applied two coats of Rust-oleum spray primer. After letting the primer completely dry, I wet sanded the brackets with 600 grit wet sandpaper to smooth out the primer coat. It is important to use a special sandpaper made for wet sanding since regular sandpaper would just disintegrate if you got it wet. Also, while wet sanding you need to keep the piece you are sanding wet by either dunking it in a bucket of water or spritzing it with a spray bottle periodically.
Brackets in spray box spray primed
Two coats of silver spray paint (Metallic aluminum) finished the job.
Brackets in spray box painted silver
Close up of brackets spray painted silver
After cutting the MDF down to the sizes needed for the shelves, I primed them using KILZ primer and then painted them Behr Ultra Pure White Semi-gloss. I like to use semi-gloss on furniture and shelving because it is more durable and easy to wipe clean.
Since I wanted the shelves to seem more substantial than 3/4 inch MDF I edged 3 sides of each shelf with 1x2 fir strips, mitering the corners. After cutting all the pieces to length (remember to add the additional length needed for the 45 degree miter cuts) I prepainted them with Behr paint plus primer in a dark blue called Starless Night. We attached the edging to the shelves using small brad nails. I filled the nail holes with wood filler, let dry, and touched up.
Shelves painted, edged, and nail holes filled
Finally, we installed the brackets and shelves. Wow! Ds's desk is now clutter free (at least for a few days). This space is still a work in progress. My next project is a DIY magnetic white board (did you know you can buy white board paint?) for the striped wall above the desk to hold the weekly spelling list and for me to leave reminders and notes on.
Before: Cluttered desk space (This was on a good day when I had picked it up and put things away).
After: Cleaner desk workspace
Now, if only he would let me paint his room a light grey (it doesn't get enough natural light for this deep of a color, but he picked it out two years ago and loves it), paint the "chair rail" white, and paint just the wall below the rail and behind the bed dark blue, I think the room would be perfect and would really grow with him as he grows. I'll let you know how good my powers of persuasion are.
