Shelf Tutorial Using Wall Paper Border Part 2

Ok Here we go again.. You'll have to read part 1 so this makes sense to ya. We are making a shelf using wallpaper border. OK ready???? Lets finish the shelf so you can see what you are making!!

Have the side boards even with the drawn line..remember the line is the traced line around your wall paper border..on the plywood. 3/4 of an inch away from the sides and the top. The bottm has a piece of trim even with the plywood edge. OKPlease drill some pilot holes so you don't crack the wood..We got this far ,,we don't want to ruin it now.......

Nail the sides to the trim piece.Now flip it over and nail the back.

Don't forget to glue under the sides and the top before nailing..it helps to hold it together better.

Next get a piece of wood . I used a piece 5 3/5 inches wide and 6 inches longer than the length of my wall paper border. It is also 3/4 thick.

From the top..... set the piece of wood on the space you drew on top of the wall paper in the begining. I measured 3 inches for the over hang on the each end of the shelf.. You might want a longer shelf that is fine ..add the inches here.

Here I have my top piece ready to be nailed to the sides. I am making the 3 holes that I will drill pilot holes for so my top won't crack. I have a 3 inch over hang on each side of my top side of my shelf.. And if you want, you can add some hooks or knobs to your trim piece as I did.. I will removed them when I paint my shelf but for now I have the holes ready to put them back into place after I am done painting and finishing my shelf.

MY 3 holes are drilled and I'm ready to put the nails in.
Flip it over and put your nails in the back. I put 7 nails across the top.

Here you can see the inside where the top meets the side in the corner...Nice clean edges for not many measurments Eh?

Here I am measuring for the knobs or hooks if you want some.. I put one in the middle then measured in 2 inches in from each side for the other 2 knobs. I drilled pilot holes and used black skrews to hold my knobs. I will remove them when I paint the shelf.

Wanna see what we have so far????????

WHOO HOO Here it is we are almost done!!! Now we can fit the wall paper border. You may have to trim a millimeter off the sides or top or bottom.. Don't take too much off..You just want the wall paper to lay flat on the plywood..no buckling of waveyness. DON'T GLUE IT IN YET!!!OK>>> Here the wallpaper it fits in and we are ready to paint the shelf.. I am doing my black.Paint the whole back black. Paint everything black on the front except all the middle where the wall paper will go. Plaint about a 1/2 inch edge on the plywood where the wallpaper will be glued..You are doing this in case when you trimmed the wall paper , if you took too much off , the black will make it not so noticable.And now we can sand our shelf..and stain it..sand it till the wood shows thru in places. When the black is dry, you can paint a second color like red or mustard and sand thru to the black in places and all the way thru to the wood also in places. I used minwax a dark walnut stain.. I rubbed it on with a rag and wiped it off. After it is dry..you can FINALLY glue your wall paper border in. I put white glue around the very edges where I painted the black in the plywood front.. Just so I was sure the wall paper didn't lift.. Other wise I just wet the back of the wall paper as I would if I were putting it on a real wall.

Just have to sand it and glue the wall paper in it and stain it........YEA!!! WHOO HOO Here it is all finished.. This one I didn't not put knobs on it. It has the dark walnut stain finish..Now all ya have to do is put some hanging hooks on the back and figger out where you want to hang it in your home.... I made 3 shelfs during this tutorial..so that is why some had knobs and some didn't. I hope you were able to follow me here.. I wanted to show you that you can make a shelf using ANY size of wall paper border that you want. By starting with the wallpaper itself and going from there by drawing a line around it on plywood.. You can just built it right up from almost nothing.

Hugs Rene