Shelf Life

We decided to tackle a small, hanging over our heads project this weekend of hanging some floating shelves in our dining room. The shelves were a free hand-me-down gift from Nate's grandmother who moved to a new apartment and couldn't take them with her. We thought it would be the perfect halftime-of-the-football-game activity.

...Why is it that "quick" projects always go a little haywire?

Regardless, we got it done, the second half proving to be a much smoother process after hacking our way through the first. Here, have a look-see:

Dining Room Before (a dark and gloomy day, as you can see)

Screws and Drywall Anchors

 And here's where it all began to head a little southward...

Drywall anchors crack and break... In the wall...

...Not pretty. Our thought? "That's weird. Let's try again."

Clearly the second attempt went much better.... Or you know. Not.

But that shelf (left) finally went up, and the other 2 were smooth sailing.

Our gorgeous wedding gift Dansk serveware up on display, yay!

First draft - You know I'll be adding and subtracting for a while probably.

So happy how the shelves and silver gleams transition into the living room.

Let's save you some scrolling and have one last before and after, shall we?

I love the whole effect, and is it just me or does the room look larger? Thrilled to have our pretty Dansk 'Fjord' serving ware out to see every day, and I'll admit: A little smug over how nicely these new shelves transition into the shelf and decor in the living room.

As for the breaking drywall anchors and holes in the wall: We didn't realize that there was a horizontal beam behind the wall on the left, thinking only of looking out for vertical studs. After realizing we were blowing apart anchors because they were hitting solid wood, we scrapped 'em and screwed straight into the beam. As for the holes, that's what spackle and touch up paint were made for, right?

Or, we could just hang the shelf over those holes and say we'll fix them later... *ahem*...

Hooray for hand-me-downs!

P.S. The candles came from Ikea, and we used the two shortest guys in the set as our unity candle lighters in our wedding ceremony. Another fun way to incorporate wedding leftovers without them being "wedding-y".