THE CAVENDER DIARY

Everybody shops at Ikea.

Our theory is to make sure our home isn’t exactly like a page from some catalogue. We change that crap up, Customize, Make it our own…..

Take our recent garage update….We started planking the walls in fencing cedar, but more to come on that later ……

Our previous kitchen cabinets were just shy of fitting completely over our washer/dryer. The space left on the side of the upcycled cabinets was about 21 – 23 inches.

Ikea Lack shelves are extremely popular, so modern and sleek. We love that the mounting hardware is hidden inside the shelf. But the sizes are just so limited; AND Ikea neglects to mention is that these shelves only hold about 25 pounds (distributed perfectly evenly) before they sag or fall off the wall completely. OUCH!

How could we fill that awkward space and actually use the shelves to hold all our heavy crap?…I mean, valuable collectables…

We found an answer to both problems. We hacked them in half.

We bought 43 inch Lack shelves and chop-sawed them in half. At 15 bucks each, 2 shelves gave us 4 smaller ones at about 21 1/2 inches, almost too perfect. There’s a metal bracket inside every shelf (this holds them to the wall, of course). It took a little more work to cut the brackets in half with a hand saw, but eventually it happened.

Here’s what all the cardboard sandwiched between laminate veneer inside an Ikea Lack shelf looks like….

But see that little bit of fiberboard at the top and bottom? Remember that part for later….

Here’s everything I used to hang my shelves… A drill with a screw bit, a box of drywall screws (long enough to reach the studs), a level, and some painters tape…

I marked my spacing on the wall with the painters tape, 12 inches apart. The shelves are about 2 inches thick, so I used 2 inch painters tape. So simple, but still bears pointing out.

With the level, I positioned the half bracket as close to the wall cabinet as I could, and screwed right into the studs. I knew where my studs were (every 16 inches) but used several screws just to be safe.

There is the only one tricky part. Because I want all my cut shelf edges against the cabinet, I had to install 2 of the brackets (and shelves) upside down. Not too complicated. I just had to remember this detail before I got into the full swing of “bracket attaching”.

I slid my shelf over the bracket and checked with the level…..Perfection (I never expected anything less)

Then, just to secure them, I screwed a couple of drywall screws into the side of my shelf…..from inside the cabinet.

A screw into the cardboard won’t do anything. Remember that fiberboard part of the cut shelf? That’s where I was aiming.  One in the front and one in the back. Now my lack shelves will hold a little more than 25 pounds.

It didn’t take long to hang all 4…

A little line of white bathroom caulk will hide the seams against the cabinets.

The cabinets were “Birch” when they used to hang in the “old” kitchen…..but Jamie fixed that with primer and white semi-gloss. Now they are sparkling white in the garage.

Here’s what the whole set-up looks like now with the cabinet doors and new handles.

Back pats all around on this one…..

I suppose you could cut the shelves and brackets to any size that you needed. But not too small, or the shelf won’t be attached at 2 studs.

I just threw the old tin globes etc. on the shelves to get some pictures, and after all, they were right there in the garage. But…..there is still an ongoing debate in the house as to whether these shelves should be “decorative” or “functional” because they are, you know, in the garage.

I’m pretty sure y’all can figure out which side of the debate we are each on…….