How I Repurposed Old Shelves

On a recent visit to see my closest friends and their precious baby boy, I scored 2 shelves my best friend was intending to throw out.  You don't understand the level of excitement I had when she told me I could have them.  I felt like Charlie when he found the golden ticket or Harry when he caught the Golden Snitch!  Really, I did.

This is what the 2 bad boys looked like after I had taken the particle board tops off.

I spray painted the metal parts white and decided to cut some 1x7.25" wood boards to use as the tops of the shelves.  I started to stain the wood boards with Minwax's Weathered Gray, but as soon as the stain dried on all the boards, I realized the color just wasn't me.  The color was too gray and too light...not that the name Weathered Gray is a correct description or anything.  (sarcasm implied)  So as usual, I reverted back to Espresso, my favorite stain color of all time.

Because the shelf brackets were fairly deep, I attached 2 pieces of wood using my kreg jig.

After attaching the boards to the top of the shelves, this is what they looked like.  I used one shelf in my office and the other above my drink station.

Kitchen Shelf

Office Shelf

I love the beautiful detailing on the brackets and the fact that I spent less than $40 repurposing both of them makes them even better!  What do you think?

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