Why We Needed Shelves
As always, our space is small. Clean dresser surfaces look better and are more functional day to day, but everyone still needs a space for colognes and lotions.
K thought a small decorative shelf beside the dresser would add storage space and leave the dresser top open.
Since the shelf was only planned to be about 6 inches deep and 20 inches wide we used a piece of live edge walnut that was sold for making charcuterie boards, cut it in half and had 2 shelves.,
Supply List
4 shelf brackets, we used 4″ ones from Amazon
1 piece of live edged walnut measuring roughly 12 inches by 21 inches
Making the Shelves
I marked a line down the middle of the board and cut as close as I could. That became my new guide and I cut each side at 90 degrees to cut the board down to the length that fit.
Then I sanded from 40 to 100 grit and voila, 2 shelves.
One of the shelves had a knot hole in the middle that needed to be filled. I bought some inexpensive quick dry epoxy from the dollar store that was marked as “dries clear.” You get what you pay for and it turned very yellow as it dried, plus it remained full of air bubbles because it dried too quickly for them to rise out.
We had initially discussed using black mica tinted epoxy but decided against it. Phoebe liked the look of the wood knot hole. The crappy yellow epoxy had ruined that idea. We could not see the knot hole anymore. We decided to use black with a bit of purple, to counteract the yellow, for the final fill.
Once it dried I scraped and sanded the epoxy from around the knot hole down to 120 grit. I sanded the epoxy down to 600 grit. For the final finish I used a beeswax/mineral oil finish I picked up from a local dealer. I prefer natural finishes. This one was designed for charcuterie boards.
The Finished Product
The shelf brackets were hung level by K and the shelves attached over them. Then they were filled with everything they could find.
