Including A Floating Shelf To A Window
When sharing some movies of our toilet on Instagram lately, a lot of you observed a simple replace we added: a wood, floating shelf within the window. It was such a easy DIY venture that we did on a whim some time in the past (and it was extraordinarily reasonably priced too!) so we needed to indicate you the simple steps to make one your self.
For reference, that is what the window appeared like once we first confirmed you the earlier than and afters of this area again in 2020. We’ve all the time used the deep windowsill for some decor and greenery, however including the additional shelf gave us room for extra issues, and simply typically provides some good curiosity to a previously non-descript window.
The steps for this rely considerably in your particular window, however right here’s what we used for ours:
Instruments & Supplies
*You could possibly additionally get the board minimize to measurement at Lowe’s or House Depot, wherein case you wouldn’t want a noticed & might seemingly use a small hand noticed or hack noticed for the skinny quarter spherical helps.
We had all of those provides readily available – even the scrap piece of butcher block – so all we want was about $2 in cove molding to make this venture occur!
Why This Window Was A Good Spot For A Shelf
This venture received’t work on each window, however ours was a fantastic candidate for a number of causes. First, it has a deep sill (about 4″), which suggests we might add a 4″ shelf with out it bumping out into the room in any respect. Something considerably shallower may make it tougher to suit most issues on there (though our wood arms from Mexico simply want about an inch of wooden to steadiness on). Positive, we might’ve made it stick out into the room a bit bit (which you are able to do in case your sill is narrower), however we personally like how the shelf is flush with the window casing because it was already deep sufficient to carry what we needed up there.
Secondly, this window has frosted glass in it – that means it doesn’t want a blind or curler shade to provide us privateness. Most window therapies would intrude with a shelf like this, so any home windows that want protecting (bed room or toilet) is perhaps a no-go. This might be superior in a kitchen window although! Even when it’s not frosted and has a pleasant view. It’s additionally value noting that this window got here frosted with our home, however we’ve added frosting movie to home windows in loads of our earlier homes earlier than – so right here’s a tutorial for that if you happen to’d prefer to take away your toilet shade, frost the window, after which add this shelf.
Lastly, since this isn’t a sleeping area, we didn’t want to fret about egress – i.e. when bedrooms want a viable escape route in case of emergency. Bogs are usually not required to fulfill egress, however we have been certain to put in our shelf in a approach that allowed the window to open behind it.
We additionally opted simply to carry the shelf in with a number of small end nails (as you’ll learn in a second) so it can simply be knocked out of the best way if there’s a actual emergency. These are all good issues to consider earlier than including any shelf in entrance of a window that opens.
How We Constructed The Window Shelf
This venture was so fast that we didn’t cease to take a single progress image, however I feel you’ll discover the method fairly self-evident from the after photographs. It’s mainly a chunk of butcher block that rests upon two small items of cove molding!
The wooden we used is this butcher block as a result of we had a scrap piece left over from this built-in storage venture. It’s fairly dear if you happen to have been to buy it JUST for this shelf, so there are actually different choices – even a primary 2×4″ might work! However, relying on the inside span of your window (ours is 28″), you’ll most likely need one thing sturdier than a normal 1″ thick board. One thing that skinny might sag over time with out assist within the center, particularly if you happen to plan to place heavy-ish objects on it.
Since we knew the butcher block was very sturdy, we merely needed to discover a approach to prop it up in place. We didn’t need large obnoxious brackets, so we determined to do this low-profile cove molding as a substitute, which blends in properly with the window trim, nearly giving us the impact of a floating wooden shelf.
So with that plan in thoughts, the steps themselves have been easy:
- Reduce your wooden shelf to measurement utilizing a noticed (ours measured 4″ deep & 28″ extensive) or have it pre-cut
- Reduce two items of cove molding to the depth of the window trim (ours was 4″)
- Measure & mark the specified placement of the underside of your shelf on both sides of your window trim
- Nail the cove molding into the window trim, utilizing a degree to verify they don’t slope ahead or again.
- Add your wooden shelf and test once more for degree.
- Nail your shelf to the cove molding (we went from beneath) to maintain it in place.
- Caulk nail holes and paint them to match your trim
The nails we used have been simply easy 1.5″ end nails in our nail gun – nothing tremendous heavy-duty in any respect – as a result of the shelf itself actually isn’t that heavy. You may even see the divots the place we put the nails in (guess they may use a second coat of caulk!).
Once more, this was a very fast, tremendous easy DIY venture that we did within the spur of the second with some leftover butcher block, however we love the way it turned out, and extremely advocate it in case you have a room that would use some further curiosity.
Oh, and if you happen to’re questioning extra about what’s ON the cabinets – moreover the 2 crops – these are wood arms coated with milagro charms that Sherry picked up on our Mexico household trip final yr. We prefer to joke that from the skin it appears to be like like arms recreating that scene from Titanic.
Different DIY Shelf Initiatives
For those who’re searching for some extra DIY shelf initiatives, we’ve obtained loads of these:
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