Apt. Update: Living Room Shelf

Hey friends!! Just popping in with a little apartment update. Every so often I get the urge to do something big in my apartment. I like the change things up A LOT. I get it from my mom and nana- the women don't stop moving things around in their homes.

I have been tinkering with the idea of a large living room shelf for a few months now. The wall above my TV was so blank and bland. I didn't want another gallery wall, since there's already one in my living room. 

I decided to make a shelf on a whim, literally the whimsiest whim I've ever had. My friend Danner was with me and she was a real trooper. I think I took her into Hobby Lobby 4 times in one day? We were in Home Depot for a good bit too. She helped me hold the shelf up while I screwed it into the wall and made sure everything was level. Thanks, Danner!! Shout out to my bestie Sammy too, she was with me the next day when I took everything back to the stores I didn't use. Let me tell you, real friends go to Home Depot with you.

The shelf was really easy to make! I used one 1in. x 8in. x 6ft piece of common pine board and two iron brackets. Each bracket is 1 foot in from the outer edge. I dry-brushed white acrylic craft paint onto the board to make it coordinate with the other white decor I have throughout the apartment. Each bracket needed 3 screws.

All in all, the shelf took about 30 minutes to put on the wall. The brackets had to be put on the wall first, which was the trickiest part. The top part of the bracket was a tad bit shorter than the thickness of the board, so the brackets couldn't be screwed onto the board first. The most time consuming thing was decorating! Bless my friend Holdren for putting up with me while she sat on my couch and I decorated. It takes a village, ha!

My goal is to use the shelf like a makeshift mantle. I want to switch up the decorations around holidays and seasons. I'm still not done making it Fall-approved, yet.