Quick Shelf Project

[afterglow]

Took about 2-3 hours to make and 7 years to put some finish on it and stick it on the bathroom wall

A dead simple project - used a lump of sopping wet oak I found on the beach at Bexhill on Sea (was buying my router from a dealer down there) that I let dry out in the garage over a couple of years.

Just chop the edges off at an angle, drill for mounting to the wall and rip-cut the mounting strip (all is revealed in photo 3), sand it down and use a horribly old and nasty finish to get this, erm, interesting finish effect. I told Mrs Afterglow that it's the figure of the oak and think I got away with it. It's only going to have the toothpaste and brushes on it anyway

Shot of top of shelf:



From underneath:



Finally a shot to show how it's fixed to the wall.




Anyway, we're really pleased with the way it looks on the wall and as long as we don't put any heavy weights on it I'm confident it'll be there a long time.

Cheers,

Lee

[promhandicam]

I really like the idea of ripping down the shelf to make a support. I guess that if you wanted something a bit stronger you could use metal pipe rather than dowel. Presumably you just glued the two pieces together once the support was fixed?

Steve

[dom]

What a clever idea.
Unashamedly, I'm going to nick it

[afterglow]

Thanks for your kind words gents ;D

It's a project from some woodworking book I got around about the turn of the century (been dying to say that for 7 years now) and it's a very distinctive piece.

Steve - yes, you could use steel rod for a stronger fixing, although with a plasterboard wall I'd rather have the dowels break than the wall come down The shelf isn't glued back together again, it sits very nice and snug (but there's no way I'll do a close-up of the join ) and is fine to carry some lightweight bathroom clutter.

Dom - I'm glad you like it and wish to purchase the detailed plans. As the online shop for the chunky shelf-plan isn't yet ready, I'll send around my donations box for you to drop some rusty old iron into for my collection toolbox

Cheers,

Lee

[thallow]

Cracking idea!