Restoration Hardwear hack bookshelf

Helloo lovely readers!!! Just wanted to share a recently completed project with ya'll. My hubby and I were SO excited/confident after we built our Farm Table that we decided to tackle a rustic bookshelf. I was majorly inspired by this one.  Check it out. (Our Vintage Home is a treasure trove of awesome DIY ideas! I was actually about to copy the same bookshelf from Restoration Hardware when I saw their version and I loved it SO much!!) We have a lot of books! Not like "hoarders"..but we like to read so we buy books. We have been relying on one small bookshelf for about a year now because...lets face it...bookshelves are expensive unless you go the rickety Ikea route. We wanted solid wood. I have two demolition derby toddlers and I want it to be sturdy!! Well I've been a busy bee accumulating pallet wood and various scrap wood lately and I was determined to build this bookshelf out of wood that I already owned. So I got to work during my kids nap (in 90 degree weather I might add) disassembling pallets to build the bookshelf. I spent two hours, got about 5 slivers, and sweated profusely before I realized that the wood I was getting off these pallets wasn't going to be strong enough...or straight enough...to build the shelf. FAIL. So off to home depot I went with my measurements in hand and supplies list to see if I could score some inexpensive wood. I knew I wanted to shelf to have a "planked" look rather than being super clean and perfect. I wanted it to look like I made it with nasty old barn wood. I ended up buying two 1/12's for the top and bottom shelves and as I was waiting at the wood cutting machine in Home Depot I was in EXTREMELY close proximity to the overflowing with awesome-sauce wood "cull lumber bin". Have you seen the cull bin? Get thee to HD or Lowes and scavenge like a vulture!! Seriously awesome wood to be had in those bins. And the best part is it is CHEAP! Like 50 cents a board cheap! They had just refilled the bin that day...and they had refilled it with RED CEDAR (yes I'm shouting!). And did I mention that the length of those beautiful boards was the exact length I needed? Yup pretty much awesome! It was thick too...and had beautiful imperfections that you just can't create easily (and to think that the imperfections that I was wanting was WHY it ended up in the cull bin to begin with...SCORE!)
So when I got home with all my supplies my hubby and I started building. I decided to splurge and use rebar for the backs of the shelves so the books didn't fall off. I love the industrial vibe it added. And we also got some super cute small metal casters for the bottom so we could move it easily.

This is a close up of the wood sans stain or poly. So pretty and unusual!

Here's the shelf pretty much built with no stain and the rebar in place. If you want step by step instructions for putting this thing together go to Our Vintage Home's site...they did a great tutorial!
We were gonna use the pocket hole system that we used on our table but we just didn't have the energy and wanted it to look rustic so we opted to just put the screws in through the side and have them show. We used silver screws that matched the rebar so it actually looks intentional! Bonus! We adore this shelf. I haven't loaded it up yet because were moving and can't fathom lugging all my books out just to pack them up in a month and a half...but when we get settled you best believe that this shelf will be styled and loaded down with awesome books! Here's the finished product! What do you guys think???

There ya have it! Custom built shelving to fit our needs and our budget! All in all this shelf cost me about 50 bucks to build. No joke! The restoration hardware version is like 2000!!! BAM! I'll take my version any day and I had a blast building it! So please...if you like this shelf do share. I would love to answer any questions you guys have! Oh and to finish it I used my new favey fave rust stain that I mentioned here. SO easy and makes wood look so fab! And I poly coated it with shellac a few times for protection. Done and done! :) Hope you guys have a FAB-U-LOUS weekend!

Linking with the following fab parties:

I built a farm table!!

I guess I should say, My hubby AND I built a farm table. 

How is everyone? Me? I am GREAT! I have been a busy lady lately....as you could all probably assume since I have been MIA for a while. My son started pre-school...sniff sniff...he's SO big and LOVES it! He's truly blossoming and I couldn't be more proud! I also got my booty back in the gym and am feeling really great being more active. I also have been dreaming up a new project. I wanted to build a rustic, chunky farmhouse table. I wanted it to look like this....

Gotta love Restoration Hardware!
So I turned to these plans on Ana White's website to give me a rough guide for how to build it myself. I did a lot of tweaking to the plans to accommodate for some materials that I already owned (several old reclaimed 4X4 posts that i wanted to use for legs) and we also opted to copy RH's table totally and notch out the outside boards on the top to show the legs.

So since I was using reclaimed lumber for my legs I really REALLY wanted to use reclaimed lumber for the top and aprons too. But for whatever reason NO ONE wants to GIVE AWAY 100 year old barn wood. What's wrong with people nowdays? I couldn't afford the barn wood I saw on Craigslist and I REALLY REALLY couldn't afford to do amazing old growth large planks from a cool lumber store near my house. So instead of breaking the bank MAJORLY I opted to head to Lowes and buy new lumber to make up the rest of the wood for the table. Douglas Fir to be exact. It came in to around 70 bucks for the wood. I bought (4) 2x10's for the top that I had the guy cut to 6ft long, (2) 2x2's that we cut at home to use as cross bracers, and (3) 2x4's to use for the aprons. MAJOR TIP: When you are in the lumber store buying your wood. Don't just grab boards off the rack and buy them. Lay them down on the ground...lay them next to each other...Do they match up? Do they have any bends or twists? Are they warped at all? Do they lay perfectly straight? You do NOT NOT NOT want crooked boards and its a HUGE pain in the booty to have to go back to the store when you are in building mode to buy new boards! I speak from personal experience....
Ok so after buying all the wood...cutting all the wood to the proper specs...laying it all out and making sure it matched up...I decided to assemble it in whatever way seemed like the best way. Nevermind the way Ana White...who does this ALL THE TIME...says to do it. I know better right? WRONG! My hubby and I basically assembled this table about 3 times. We did it once...realized that we put the legs on too soon and the aprons wouldn't fit properly...did it again with the aprons on too soon and then realized the cross bracers wouldn't fit properly. There was A LOT of that going on in my garage on building day! It was not fun and we each had about 40 splinters when it was all said and done! Here are a few pics of the table during the process...
 This was us laying out the boards to make sure they matched up...see...NOT perfect...we ended up needing to recut a few.

Here's where we lay out our apron pieces to see if they match up with our notched out side boards. They did! Woot!

Here's the whole table put together...minus screws...with my fabulous salvage legs!

I could show you a TON of other pics....but I'm impatient and want to get to the BIG REVEAL already!! If you want detailed pics of the process then go to Ana's site. She rocks!

Here we go....deep breath....

TAH DAH!!!!!! I am beyond obsessed with this table. Like....I want to marry it and have its babies!!!! It turned out exactly the way I was wanting. Here's a close up of all the distressed goodness on the top....

See those dents...err....gouges on the edges? That was accomplished with a chisel...a LOT of sweat in the 95 degree weather...and determination to make this new wood look fabulously old.

Here's another shot...

Yup. Pretty much obsessed. If you guys are curious what I used to "age" the new wood....here's a secret. RUST! I soaked a couple of chopped up steel wool pads in a jar of white vinegar for a few days. It dissolved...and then I mixed a splash of that mixture with enough water to get the right color and painted it on. let it dry. and poly coated the top. Seriously a genius method and I LOVE that you don't need to wipe it off or let it "cure" before you can finish the rest. Its my new go-to stain!!

I seriously apologize that I've been neglecting you all lately. Pinkie promise that I'll do better!!! Hope you all have a fab weekend!!

Sharing this project at the following fab parties:

Coastal Charm