Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Leave The Bourbon On The Shelf

Not my personal philosophy mind you, just the title to an actual song. So, these are the shelves after loading them up. I didn't think I really had enough stuff to fill all of them but lo and behold, there is even more stuff I didn't get on there. Of course, once the base cabinet is installed a few items will go in there and that will free up some shelf space.
And yes, on that middle shelf is some very excellent Knob Creek whiskey that someone recently gave me. It's not as good though if you don't have someone to share it with.

I started out by attaching these brackets to the walls at the appropriate heights. I made these out of the little bit of leftover cypress I had. It is a beautiful wood also. They are 1 1/4" thick and 1 1/2" top to bottom. I cut the length so that the long point is about 1/4" shorter than the width of the shelf. I also think the angle cut on front just looks nicer that a square cut and doesn't give you something to poke your hand on. Not that you would really but you never know. Now, Allen talked me into sheathing the interior of the pantry with plywood instead of sheetrock and I am somewhat glad I did this. This way you can run a screw into any part of the wall; you don't have to worry about hitting a stud in order to have the screw hold. It is very important to pre-drill the holes in any small piece of wood like this and I also countersunk the holes so that the bugle head screws would sink up flush the the surface of the wood. I used something like 2 1/2" coarse-thread screws to attach these brackets to the wall.

Once I got the brackets up I simply laid in the shelves, one at a time and working from the bottom up. Starting at the bottom lets you have plenty of space to work above and not be knocking your head on a shelf or whatever. I also put two dowels along the length of the shelves, into the studs, to help support the back length but my pics of that didn't come out worth a crap. I believe I am also going to add a center bracket to each shelf though, to support the front edge.

I used these 2" trim head screws to attach the shelves to the brackets, predrilling those holes too. The trim head allows the screw to sink beneath the surface of the wood but leaves a very small, inconspicuous hole that can easily be filled if you want. These will never be seen but they were the length I needed. I used three screws in the each, evenly paced of course. I mentioned that if you have a wide board that has some cupping in it you can draw that out by installing the board with the cupped middle facing up. It is easier to draw the middle down with screws than to try to draw and keep the edges down. Screw the back of the board down first and then the middle. It sometimes helps to clamp or wedge the hump out and then run the screw in securely. When you take the clamp or wedge off the board will remain flat.

So, I was happy to get this done. At least one thing that makes me feel good. Work is fairly sucky right now, as is my personal life. I know I have a crappy attitude but I could really use a nice thing to happen now. In the meantime I'm just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

* The Killers

11 comments:

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Nice to see those shelves in place and yes they do fill up quickly. Thanks too for the step-by-step..not that I will be doing any shelving - leave that to Grenville!

Woody said...

Ahhh...the Knob Creek! Theresa loves her Creek water. I always enjoy coming home to find her giddy ass when she has decided to play in the Creek.

Peace

MamaHen said...

Hey Beatrice! wha?? leave that to Grenville?! lol!

Hey Woody! ha! I bet you do! that's some good 'creek water'.

R.Powers said...

I didn't even know trim screws existed.
Once again, I learn something useful here!
The cypress is beautiful and I love those clean simple shelves.

Good work!
Hope something great happens soon.

Anonymous said...

Nice looking shelves. You're right in thinking of some center support, BUT if you have any cypress (damn that is nice looking wood)try putting a strip along the back edge and another piece along the front edge. Angle the front piece to match your side supports by cambfering the top edge. Shelves have a habit of sagging at the worst places.

Ed said...

When I saw the top picture, I was thinking sag city but when I read about the dowels and the upcoming center support, I think they are perfect.

For me, a home doesn't feel like a home unless there is a well stocked pantry to go with it. I often wonder how long I could go without going to the store if I had too. My pantry isn't nearly as big but I'm guessing between that and my freezer, I could go several months, perhaps up to half a year.

MamaHen said...

Hey FC! thanks man!
I plan on doing a post soon on various fasteners; nails and screws.

Hey Grenville! well, the back edge is doweled into the wall so that will hold that but I like the clean look of an unobstructed edge, therefore I don't want to thicken the edge by adding another board. I'm thinking a slim metal bracket midway with be plenty of support and will not add visual impact.

Hey Ed! yeah, The dowels are good and with such thick boards, one center bracket should be fine.
I need to get a freezer too and then continue to stock this pantry. It is a very good thing to have one well stocked, as you say.

Jenn said...

I agree about the middle bracket. They look sharp, though. Beautiful wood.

MamaHen said...

Hey Jenn! thanks!

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

It is nice to know how a skilled craftsman does a small carpentry job with care. I know know why I never became a carpenter.

MamaHen said...

Hey Philip! thanks!