Floating Shelves

 Let's talk about my kitchen. This is it on a good day. Cluttered. No counter space. And a weird shape. But we can't do anything about the shape. No major renovations for us. Not right now anyway. 
I kept thinking, there has got to be a way to make this place cuter. 

One day last week, when Casey was taking a nap, I broke out a can of chalkboard paint that we have had for months and painted a wall. 

 And it added some fun to the kitchen. But I wanted more. I texted Jay and asked him if he would build some floating shelves in that alcove to the right. That little counter on the right is so small and packed with stuff. We need shelves bad. And the man looked up ideas (and even got a Pinterest where he has one board called DIY where he has two pins) and researched and planned and when he got home from work on Saturday, he went to work on the shelves.

While he was building, I painted the alcove. More chalkboard! And now that the upper portion of the plate rail is chalkboard, I need to paint the lower portion white. Add it to the list. [I need to make a sign that says 'Add it to the list' because we say it every day about this dang house] 

This is what the frame of the shelves looked like.  Then he put plywood on the top, bottom, and front of the shelf. We used a stain called 'Ash' and 2 coats of Satin Poly before using the nail gun to install the top, bottom, & sides.

Here is it! The before and after! 

Very happy with our final result! All of this stuff was floating around the kitchen or dinning room and now it has a place. You don't know how happy this makes me. 

And just for the record, this project took about 8 hours (that is counting drying time for stain and poly), 3 trips to Home Depot, 1 sassy Home Depot worker, 1 screaming baby when Jay used loud power tools, and two shutters from Jayson when he used the table saw for the first time after his incident. Good work StubbyFinger Jay. I am so impressed by you.