DIY: MAKE NEW WOOD LOOK OLD/OPEN SHELVING

It's been 4 months, 3 weeks + 4 days since we moved from our house in Charlotte to our apartment in Queens. HUGE difference but we didn't want that to stop us from styling up our little pad. Marc LOVES design blogs + often comes home with new ideas. We both wanted open shelving in our kitchen but we didn't want generic shelving + what we liked in West Elm was way overpriced. I did some hunting on Pinterest + found the picture below which became our inspiration.

We were able to complete this whole project for under $50. That's less then just one shelf at West Elm.

We started out by measuring the area where we wanted the shelves to go + went on over to Home Depot for some wood. Measurements do vary based on your space.

At Home Depot they will cut the wood for you as long as you have your measurements. REMEMBER: Measure 2x + CUT ONCE.

For this project we picked up some white wood + the workers at Home Depot cut it for us since we don't have a garage anymore to work on our projects. They did a great job!!

We also picked up the following stain options below. Once we were half way through the project I realized that I didn't like how dark they were coming out, so we had to pick up a lighter walnut stain. More on that later ; )

Knock the wood around with your hammer first. Go all around the edges and the sides to dent them in and smooth them out. Next, be sure to put your screws in a bag and just drop them on the wood. Depending on how old you want your wood to look just give it a few whacks. I like using the meat mallet for some deeper nicks in the wood.

In order to get our white wood to look like it had seen some hard days we started out with the following items.

*Paint brush, heavy duty latex gloves, hammer, bag of screws, meat mallet (clean of course), rags to   wipe up the excess stain various objects we found in our basement.

We followed a great tutorial from Young House Love + then changed things up a bit for ourselves. They do such a great job of explaining the process. Marc introduced me to their blog + I really do LOVE it.

You'll want to get a bowl for water. We did dip our brush in the water first and applied it to the wood prior to putting on the first stain. There really isn't a specific method but we did try to follow what we learned from Young House Love and then go from there.

Use your rag to wipe away the excess stain. Let it dry once you feel you've reached the look you want with the first stain (Ebony) When the wood is dry apply the second stain and use the same technique. 

I almost forgot to mention the brackets. Marc wanted metal and I wanted wood. In the end my darling husband let me go with wood. IKEA was the place to go for brackets. Picked up these bad boys + brushed them with the same stain as the shelves. Marc did a crazy good job with them.

See how the 2nd one in looks more golden then the others? That's what I wanted but for some reason they kept coming out darker like 3 + 4. Thank goodness Home Depot is a few blocks away. 

Golden Pecan did the trick with a little light sanding. 

I was so excited to finally display all of my treasures that I've collected along the years. Who would have thought that these were just plain old wood? We wanted character + I think we got it!!

Don't be afraid to buy wood with some imperfections. If you want the weather looked with some character it pays to take the extra time and look through the wood. I LOVE this piece.

Got these marks by using the meat mallet. As crazy as it sounds but it really helped do the job. 

We used a hammer + the end of a drill bit for these beauties. Play along with what you have. You cannot go wrong.

Here is the finished product + this small but AMAZING change makes me want to be in my kitchen even more. Marc + I do that thing where you turn the light on + off and just stand in amazement by what we've done. 

We picked up these sweet succulents at the Farmers Market in the city to complete our project. PERFECTION!!!