I recently gave our loft/playroom a refresh that fits our growing kids and their needs. I loved how the room came together but the TV wall bothered me. When we replaced our old TV with this larger TV the photo wall didn’t look right anymore. I needed to come up with a different design.
I had a vision in my head and for a certain type of picture shelf but I couldn’t find it anywhere – so that meant I had to DIY it! The TV wall is long and I wanted one large shelf, not two put together.
For this project I used:
Since the wall is 12′ we cut the board down to 10′, which fills the wall but leaves a little bit of space on the sides. We used a circular saw to make the straight cut and then stained the wood with black wood stain and cloth rags
I found the best was to apply the stain evenly was to work in smaller areas and wipe off the stain quickly after applying it. If you have an extra set of hands it’s quick and easy to have one person apply the stain while the other follows right behind wiping it off!
I let the stain dry for a few hours before I put it up on the wall. To install the shelf we held the board up on the wall where we wanted it and used a level to make sure it was straight. Then we drew a level line on the wall across the top of the wood. This makes it easier to attach the brackets to the wall without having to also hold up the wood shelf.
Next we found and marked the studs. For this long shelf we used 4 of the metal brackets. We pre-drilled the holes and then attached the brackets to the wall with 2
inch screws. Once that was done we simply slid the wood into the brackets and then it was time to decorate!
inch screws. Once that was done we simply slid the wood into the brackets and then it was time to decorate!
I used a mix of large black and white family photos, hand cut silhouettes of our whole family, and some new house plants I picked up from Trader Joe’s.
I’m incredibly happy with how this simple project turned out. Finally I love every aspect of our new and improved loft/kids hangout room! To see this project in action check out this video of us putting the whole project together!
-Grey Birch Designs-
