DIY Crown Molding Shelf

I took this random light that we had in our house - it was homemade from the previous owners and in our kitchen with florescent lights - and turned it into crown molding shelves!

Here is how I did it.  After a few meltdowns (including, not being able to figure out how to move my miter saw - looking at the hand held miter saw with the saw covered in glue so it wouldn't work, being angry I couldn't find the extension cord and plug in the garage) - I stumbled upon this lighting contraption that has been sitting in our garage waiting to be thrown out.  See - everything happens for a reason!

I took out the electrical feature of the light - so I was left with a crown molding box.

Then I got thinking - I need to find something to sit on top - what do I have...what do I have...Do you remember the dress-up center I made for my daughters birthday - I made it from my kids armour.  Well this is one of the drawers that was left over.  I had two of them!

And it fit perfectly on the top!!!

So then I marked a fair amount over from what I needed - and made two cuts - one on each side with our miter saw.

Then I marked where I actually needed it - and cut it again.

See - it's starting to take shape!

Here is another view - you can see how the original piece was constructed - in case you want to make it from scratch.  The white piece with the screws though was used to secure the electric part.

Then I needed something to have on the bottom - because you don't want to see up into the guts of the shelf - right.  So - you know those cheap flimsy bottoms to drawers.  They are white and cheap is the best way to describe them - I had one left over from the dresser and I cut it to fit - it works great - I just glued and clamped it in - because gravity would really take care of the rest.

My husband and I had a debate over which way the top should go - up or down - he won - it looked more like an additional piece of crown with the drawer facing down. 

Then we glued and nailed it down.

It's starting to take shape!

Then - how do we hang this awesomeness to the wall????

We took a 2x4 (probably heavier than it needed to be), glued and nailed it to the top of the shelf - so we could use anchors and anchor it to the wall. (side note of an opps - make sure it's where you want it before you nail and glue it - mine was out to far - and wouldn't sit on the wall.  We took a jig saw to it to try and trim it - well it was nice enough to pop off!  So we moved it back - then glued it and nailed it where it should have been - lesson learned)

Then we have to fill all those silly holes - and sand sand sand...

Here is just another view of the inside.  Then prime and paint everything.  One coat of prime - and then about 3-4 coats of white flat paint (there were a lot of imperfections - we didn't want to draw attention to!)

And Tada.....Our decorated shelves - that were FREE!!!!  I love that price - we had everything on hand!  Except the decorations - we decided to actually buy something to put on them!  Fancy that idea - right!

Another shot.

I just love that picture of my girls running - brings in the color's of the room.

OK - now for a secret - see on the bottom of the shelf - there are these circle shapes - yup - they are circle shapes....Time for my confession....When we attached the 2x4 and the anchors to the wall - the shelf tilted down - a lot!!!!  So we put in these wood circles I had in the basement - it was the perfect amount to tilt the bottom out - to make the shelf flat.

See - you can see it a little better here.

See how nice that bottom turned out with that flimsy material.

We need to do a little more finish work - filling in the wholes with some caulk - but - we wanted to get them up in the worst way!

One more picture - I was trying to not use my flash - playing with my photography skills.

As a side note - and another "opps" that bottom shelf fell :(  My husband was taking it down to do some finish work - and we couldn't get the anchors to work right.  Good thing it fell on him and not our kids.  We are going to re-evaluate how to attach to the wall....Needs to be sturdy with three little crazy kids running around - this is their room....Keep you posted on how we net out.

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