One Room Challenge Kitchen – Week No. 6

Welcome to week six of The One Room Challenge™  and things are finally starting to come together and the real deal is finally starting to look like my colorful kitchen mood board. This week I tackled some big projects, specifically the open shelving and wallpaper. These tasks got this space looking like a kitchen again but more importantly closer to the finish line.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, The One Room Challenge™ is a biannual interior design blog and Instagram event. In each round, twenty design influencers are selected to take the challenge as Featured Designers, and transform a space and any blogger or Instagrammer can join as ORC Guest participants by linking their room transformation each week. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process while sharing their sources and professional advice over eight weekly posts. 

WEEK 1 / WEEK 2 / WEEK 3 / WEEK 4 / WEEK 5 / WEEK 6 (You are here) / WEEK 7 / WEEK 8 – REVEAL

Be sure to check out other ORC Featured Designers and Guest Participants over at The One Room Challenge!

I also want to give a big thanks to Lights.com and Amerock for gifting products to help complete this project.

One of my biggest projects this week was getting up the butcherblock floating shelving. This required quite a few steps to prepare and a few special tools to make the job a little easier.

Cut butcherblock for shelving

For my open shelving, I decided to use 2″ thick butcher block. I found 120″ x 25″ rubberwood slabs at South Eastern Salvage for $279 each that would work perfectly. I templated it out and found I could get all the pieces I needed out of two slabs but it did require some cutting. The reasonable cost made these slabs worth the effort.

For this job I use a Kreg Rip-Cut, Circular saw guide to get straight cuts along the length of the slabs and my 12″ miter saw to cut the shelves to length. (affiliates) I cut my shelves 10″ deep, about the depth needed for a full-size dinner plate. You could do any dept that suits you.

Once cut I sanded the shelves down with my belt sander and added a coat of Minwax Special Walnut stain and Watco Butcher Block Oil. Watco does offer a stain and oil in one but it was not available locally.

Installing floating shelves

With the shelving prepared I was ready for install. Because I wanted invisible brackets and true floating shelving this job did require some tedious work. I used three specific items to do this, 8 Inch Floating Shelf Brackets, a 1/2-Inch x 12-Inch Drill Bit, and a Self Centering Doweling Jig (affiliates.) If you do shallower shelves you would want a shorter bracket least an inch shorter than your shelf depth.

The process starts by setting a level line where you would like the shelf and locating the studs. The brackets are mounted directly to the studs so once I had my locations set I cut out holes in the drywall just large enough to set in my bracket.

Once all the brackets are mounted you simply place your shelf on top of the bracket and flip it up so the back edge of the shelf sits on the bracket pins. You then mark the location of each pin. I also numbered each shelf and marked which side was up to make it easier to get each shelf back into the correct location.

Now time to drill. Center your Self Centering Doweling Jig over your bracket location marks r being sure to tighten it down securely.

Using 1/2-inch x 12-Inch Drill Bit drill into your shelf slab at least the length of your bracket pin, in my case 8″. With the added depth of the doweling jig, this was the full length of my drill bit so if you do a deeper shelf you will need a longer bit. You will need to pull the bit out regularly as you drill to clear all the debris in the hole so be patient with this process. Once the holes are drilled to full depth run your dill at different angles just at the opening of the hole to widen the entry point for the brackets. This will make it a little easier to get the shelves onto the brackets.

I did three brackets for my longer 45″ shelves and two brackets for the shorter shelves. These brackets are pretty solid so no need to overdo it.

Hanging wallpaper

Before installing my shelves permanently I decide to run my wallpaper first so I wouldn’t have to cut around the shelves. to do this I removed the brackets so I could run the wallpaper flat and then replaced them.

To put the shelves on you will simply align your pins with the holes and begin to slide them onto the brackets. you may have to push the pins slightly in one direction or the other to get all the holes aligned. The shelf will fit on the pins very tightly so you will most likely need a rubber mallet to hammer the shelf in. Because the shelves fit this tightly onto the bracket there is no need to secure them additionally with any other hardware. I will go back later and caulk the edges of my shelves but they do not pull off easily as is.

With all the shelves installed it was on to the pretty stuff. I finally got all the NuWallpaper Lemon Drop Yellow wallpaper up and even decide to cover two walls to tie in the dining space. Look how good it’s looking with my yellow bar stools.

Hang lighting

The wallpaper is up and things are really looking brighter but what really brightened things up was the addition of my new lighting gifted to me from Lights.com.

From their selection, I chose the Carlisle Wall Sconce in matte black and brushed brass and the 10″ Powell globe pendant. The finishes work great with my cabinet hardware and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they look in the space and it is getting me excited to start some styling!

Demo bar top

I have one more big construction project next week, the bar top and bar front so this week I got the old top off in preparation. I’m excited to see how this one comes together.

TO-DO LIST

And look at this to-do list. I think it is looking short enough to finish on time…

• Demo cabinets
• Peel Thermofoil and paint cabinets
• Run new electrical for lighting and hood
• Reinstall cabinet and drawer fronts
• Repair Drywall
• Paint ceiling
• Cut out old tile behind range
• Install new tile backsplash behind hood
• Build out cabinet soffit and microwave cabinet
• Prime and Paint hood
• Install hood and connect ductwork
• Remove plantation shutter and repair trim
• Trim out soffit and repair crown molding
• Paint soffit and trim
• Demo Bar top
• Cut butcherblock for shelving
• Bar top construction
• Install floating shelves
• Tile back of bar
• Install cabinet hardware
• Hang wallpaper
• Install faucet
• Install lighting
• Recover dining chair seats
• Sew roman shade
• Caulk shelves
• Touch up paint