Project Gone Wonky

Blogland.

The DIY Queen’s domain.

Blog after blog parades one fantastic project after another.

It’s reminiscent of REM’s “Shiny Happy People.”  We smile, skip, and happily do the show-and-tell thing. Our purpose is to inspire you, Dear Reader, to get to your own project. After-all, we did this thing in just three e-a-s-y steps in ten minutes on a Sunday afternoon just to fill in our spare time and are more than happy to tell you how as we skip with delight around our new creation.

Other times a DIY Queen’s job is more of a cheerleader:

“Give me a D. Give me an I. Give me a Y-O-U!

With a paint brush in one hand, nail gun in the other.

Get a pile of scrap wood, and make something for your mother!

GO YOU!”

And then there’s the projects gone wonky that we never talk/post about. This leaves a mistaken impression that everything we put our hands to turns to gold. Well, Dear Reader, here’s where I’m going to keep it real. I have a project gone wonky. Very wonky.

It started with rearranging furniture which left this blank wall (look at the wall in the background):

I like the frames together like that so the focus was on finding brackets and wood for a shelf. Found a pair of matching vintage brackets this past weekend. And then the project went downhill from there.

First sign of wonkiness was in choosing my wood. Had the *bright* idea to reuse a drawer. I spent forty-five minutes Monday evening cutting it down by hand to get it to the right size. Yes, forty-five minutes. Yes, with a hand saw. Yes, I’m crazy fearless that way. I woke up Tuesday morning realizing it wasn’t going to work. It was too thin and would look weak and flimsy. Yes, we’re still talking about the wood I spent forty-five minutes cutting by hand.

So, back to the junk stash I go. After buying the brackets I’m determined at this point to not buy anything else. I find part of a drop leaf table. It has the right thickness but isn’t quite long enough. Thinking I won’t mind I decide to try it out for size. I “set” up the shelf to see how it will look on the wall:

Not happenin’!

Back to the junk stash where I pull out this little beauty my husband found and brought home:

It just doesn’t fit our décor in its original form.

Look how pretty and shiny:

So I sand, stain, and paint it white with homemade chalk paint.

Much better:

Turning my attention to the brackets, I dab a bit of the same white on them.

And then the wonky monster strikes again. I break a bracket. Yes. Really. One fell onto the tile floor and the bottom loop for the screw broke off.

At this point it’s too comical to get angry. Seriously. ALL I WANTED WAS A SHELF, Y’ALL!

One little shelf to hold my picture frames.

You know what’s coming next. Back to the junk stash to hopefully find brackets to work with the wood. Guess what? Found two plant hooks that will work. It’s like they were made for each other. The shelf is cut from a log and is designed to just sit on brackets, the plant hooks angle up at the end which will help secure the shelf from coming forward and falling off the wall.

The wonkiest part of all? Both the wood and brackets were already in my junk stash!

In closing, let’s review my three e-a-s-y steps in this project: (1)Purchase vintage brackets, break one, find two more. (2) Cut the wrong wood, pull out another piece and paint it. (3)Put the shelf up and que the music for the background ("Shiny Happy People") while I skip around and tell you, Dear Reader, that YES! You, too, can do this in your home! Go YOU!

(Admit it, you now had "Shiny Happy People" playing in your head while looking at the reveal, huh?)

Happy Treasure Hunting, Y'all ~Betsy