Shutter Shelf

Hello Friends!  I've missed you the last few days.  I missed a couple days of blogging because I just tried to cram too much in my day and flat ran out of time.  And when bedtime calls, I must answer, even if the blog post is not written.  Generally bedtime calls me by 9:30 each night...I know, I'm an oldie!  But, in my defense, I do start my day around 5 or 5:30 generally.  

Okay, on another totally random note, I feel the need to share a tiny little garage sale conversation that took place this morning.  It's one of those "you know you live in the south if..." kind of stories.  Don't know about you, but I always feel the need to say thank-you to the garage sale host or hostess, especially if I don't buy anything.  So, I'm at a sale, hosted by a sweet little old man.  I had first asked him how he was doing and he said "purty good seein's how my gettin' up early ain't caught up to me just yet".  Then, I shop his sale (which consisted of two tables). Side note: can you really call it a garage sale and go the trouble of having it and advertising if it's only two tables??  And no, he wasn't just sold out...this was at 7:15.  Anyhoo, I didn't buy anything and I'm leaving so I give him my usual "thank you" to which he responded, "yee-huh".  For those of you that might not know, that's code for 'you're welcome'.  And it's pronounced just like I wrote it: "yee-huh".  I got in my car and just smiled...yep, I'm in the south!

Alright, onto a little shelf I whipped up last night.  I sold a couple of really big pieces in the last couple of days in some of my booths and I was in desperate need of a display shelf.  I haven't found one recently (or at least one I was willing to pay the price for), so I decided to consult my scrap wood-and-other-stuff pile.  I had four old shutters that were no good for display anymore...slats falling out, some rotted parts, wobbly, etc, so I turned them into this, which happened turn out to be very sturdy.  Voila...I just love a good upcycled project!

 Here's what the shutters started out like.  There were four of them that I had picked up of the side of the road when we first moved to Florida.

 I used the compound sliding miter saw and cut two pieces to serve as the sides.  I figured I would start there and see what I had left to work with.  I then cut three pieces to use as the shelves.  Don't tell my husband, but I didn't measure anything.  He's a perfectionist and would not be happy to know this.  I knew the shutters were the same length, so I picked the same spot on each one to make the cuts.

 Here's what I had left after cutting my pieces.  You know they are past the point of return when even I throw them out...goodbye shutter remains!

 The picture below shows the shelf starting to be put together.  What you see on the top is actually the side panel.  I stood the shelves upright and placed the side panel on top of them.

 I screwed all the shelves on using some really long screws to provide extra stability.  I didn't pre-drill anything for this project, because the wood was fairly soft.

 Once I screwed through the side panel (1 screw into each corner of the end of the shelf) into the shelf ends, I flipped the entire unit over and added the remaining side panel.  Worthy of mentioning here is the fact that I did have to screw and unscrew a few of my joints, to get it straight.  Had I measured in the get-go, I could have eliminated this, but since I was eyeballing, my shelves weren't totally straight the first time.  This piece didn't need to be perfect due to the sheer rusticness of it, but I at least needed level shelves!  Pretty good for a 15 minute project if I do say so myself.

I just got home from working my booth at Smith's where this baby is staying until someone takes it home! (Excuse the poor picture quality: my phone + fluorescent lights = really bad pictures).

Here's a few other Smith's booth picture updates (of course, they are also horrible picture quality...sorry!!)

Linking up with these gals: