Knick Knack Shelf

The before picture

    Sometimes I get requests to help build a little something and, if possible, I like to give it a whirl.   The picture to the right is the back side of my niece's (Erin) cupboard and she was wondering if one could build a little knick knack shelf under that ledge that runs along the top.  Of course (in my mind)   this appears like it should be a relatively easy task.   And it should.   (Yes it should be.  I wonder what happened.)

Notes, notes, and more notes

     I happened to have a few extra pieces of oak laying around and that is what the cupboards were made of so I got out my little tablet and wrote down some measurements.   I took those home  and cut and sanded some boards.   The trick, of course, was that I was building the shelves at home and hoping that I had the measurements down correctly.   Also I was hoping I had the color of the cupboards down so that I could match up the stain.  

  I like working with oak although some claim that it is an old fashion wood.    Now days it seems that cupboards are made from other choices of wood.    This shelf was going to be mounted on the back side of the cupboards and I wanted to be sure that it could support a little weight.    

Of the three characters,  that is me wearing the watch.

       After making a couple runs between Erin's home and my shop, we finally managed to get the shelves to fit.   (I thought I had taken good measurements, but the shelves were just a little too snug so we had to trim a little off on the sides. Also I had to made a couple trips to match the stain. )   Barry, Erin's husband, helped me mount the shelves.    (I noticed that he seemed to bounce up off the floor a little quicker than me.   Not sure why.)

Jasper  is checking to see if the wood is bending. 

   Once we had it installed, we put a little weight on the shelves just to see if they would hold up.   Looks like it would work.  

Red and Jasper checking over the results. 

     


   There we go.   The shelves are installed and ready to be loaded up with things.   Erin mentioned that she may have to go shopping...  

  (There were two cats helping out with this project.   I have to ask.   Is the world being taken over by cats?   It seems like the pictures of my last two projects ended up with  cats in them.   Is that a sign?)