Decorated Chaos: Adding a Shelf Above the Bead Board Wall

I hope you had a happy Valentines Day!

I had a great weekend and got a lot accomplished on my entryway wall and even got to play with my nail gun. Woot woot!

You may remember this is where we left off.

The wall painted and bead board cut and put up.

My goal is to create an entryway and I wanted the space to be functional.

It is a small space at the bottom of the staircase and next to the front door so I wanted to build a shelf/ledge, and install hooks.

Before I can put up either I needed to decide how wide I wanted the ledge.

I decided to make it wide enough for a picture ledge that can also hold a small candle and other décor, so I chose to use a 1x4.

I also decided on a wide header that would hold hooks so I chose a 1x6 for the header.

I knew my wall was 36 and 3/4 inches but ding dong me decided to have HD cut the board to 37 inches thinking I didn't want it to be too short.

and of course.....it did not fit!

Since it did not fit I have to cut a little off so I marked the boards with my cut line using a pencil and then used my hand saw to cut it.

Man, what a workout for your arms! I really need to get a miter saw at some point.

So NOW my boards are the right length....sigh.....and its time to put this bad boy together!

I got the idea to create my ledge first by attaching the two pieces with glue and THEN using my nail gun to put it up in one piece.

I didn't have any clamps so I decided to use tape to hold the pieces together while they dried.

After finishing this project I would like to tell you to NOT do it this way! LOL

My board shifted and some four letter words were expelled from my mouth and I had to improvise, so if you decide to do it this way make SURE you secure the two pieces with clamps so they do not move on you.

Next, I held up my header on the wall and got it level before nailing with the nail gun.

You can do this by yourself like I did, but I suggest having someone hold it while you level and use the nail gun.

Just nail it once on each side so you can let go and free up your hands to finish nailing.

And here it is!

I love it!

So now with the ledge up it was time to spackle nail holes and caulk all the gaps.

I used this caulking specifically made for moldings:

And this is what it looks like after being caulked.

Now that it is up I need to add a strip of molding under the ledge for interest and of course paint it, so there are a few more things to do and then I can give you a final living room reveal!