When sharing some movies of our rest room on Instagram not too long ago, a lot of you seen a simple replace we added: a wood, floating shelf within the window. It was such a easy DIY venture that we did on a whim some time in the past (and it was extraordinarily inexpensive too!) so we wished to indicate you the straightforward steps to make one your self.

For reference, that is what the window regarded like after we first confirmed you the earlier than and afters of this area again in 2020. We’ve all the time used the deep windowsill for some decor and greenery, however including the additional shelf gave us room for extra issues, and simply usually provides some good curiosity to a previously non-descript window.

The steps for this rely considerably in your particular window, however right here’s what we used for ours:
Instruments & Supplies
*You possibly can additionally get the board lower to dimension at Lowe’s or Residence Depot, during which case you wouldn’t want a noticed & might seemingly use a small hand noticed or hack noticed for the skinny quarter spherical helps.
We had all of those provides readily available – even the scrap piece of butcher block – so all we want was about $2 in cove molding to make this venture occur!
Why This Window Was A Good Spot For A Shelf
This venture received’t work on each window, however ours was an incredible candidate for a number of causes. First, it has a deep sill (about 4″), which implies we might add a 4″ shelf with out it bumping out into the room in any respect. Something considerably shallower may make it more durable to suit most issues on there (though our wood arms from Mexico simply want about an inch of wooden to stability on). Certain, we might’ve made it stick out into the room a bit of bit (which you are able to do in case your sill is narrower), however we personally like how the shelf is flush with the window casing because it was already deep sufficient to carry what we wished up there.

Secondly, this window has frosted glass in it – that means it doesn’t want a blind or curler shade to offer us privateness. Most window therapies would intrude with a shelf like this, so any home windows that want protecting (bed room or rest room) may be a no-go. This might be superior in a kitchen window although! Even when it’s not frosted and has a pleasant view. It’s additionally value noting that this window got here frosted with our home, however we’ve added frosting movie to home windows in loads of our earlier homes earlier than – so right here’s a tutorial for that for those who’d prefer to take away your rest room shade, frost the window, after which add this shelf.

Lastly, since this isn’t a sleeping area, we didn’t want to fret about egress – i.e. when bedrooms want a viable escape route in case of emergency. Bogs aren’t required to satisfy egress, however we have been positive to put in our shelf in a means that allowed the window to open behind it.

We additionally opted simply to carry the shelf in with a number of small end nails (as you’ll learn in a second) so it can simply be knocked out of the way in which if there’s a actual emergency. These are all good issues to consider earlier than including any shelf in entrance of a window that opens.
How We Constructed The Window Shelf
This venture was so fast that we didn’t cease to take a single progress image, however I believe you’ll discover the method fairly self-evident from the after photographs. It’s principally a chunk of butcher block that rests upon two small items of cove molding!

The wooden we used is this butcher block as a result of we had a scrap piece left over from this built-in storage venture. It’s fairly expensive for those who have been to buy it JUST for this shelf, so there are actually different choices – even a fundamental 2×4″ might work! However, relying on the inside span of your window (ours is 28″), you’ll most likely need one thing sturdier than a typical 1″ thick board. One thing that skinny might sag over time with out help within the center, particularly for those who plan to place heavy-ish objects on it.

Since we knew the butcher block was very sturdy, we merely needed to discover a method to prop it up in place. We didn’t need huge obnoxious brackets, so we determined to do that low-profile cove molding as an alternative, which blends in properly with the window trim, virtually giving us the impact of a floating wooden shelf.

So with that plan in thoughts, the steps themselves have been easy:
- Minimize your wooden shelf to dimension utilizing a noticed (ours measured 4″ deep & 28″ large) or have it pre-cut
- Minimize two items of cove molding to the depth of the window trim (ours was 4″)
- Measure & mark the specified placement of the underside of your shelf on all sides of your window trim
- Nail the cove molding into the window trim, utilizing a degree to ensure they don’t slope ahead or again.
- Add your wooden shelf and test once more for degree.
- Nail your shelf to the cove molding (we went from beneath) to maintain it in place.
- Caulk nail holes and paint them to match your trim
The nails we used have been simply easy 1.5″ end nails in our nail gun – nothing tremendous heavy-duty in any respect – as a result of the shelf itself actually isn’t that heavy. You may even see the divots the place we put the nails in (guess they might use a second coat of caulk!).

Once more, this was a very fast, tremendous easy DIY venture that we did within the spur of the second with some leftover butcher block, however we love the way it turned out, and extremely suggest it you probably have a room that might use some further curiosity.

Oh, and for those who’re questioning extra about what’s ON the cabinets – apart from the 2 crops – these are wood arms coated with milagro charms that Sherry picked up on our Mexico household trip final 12 months. We prefer to joke that from the surface it seems to be like arms recreating that scene from Titanic.

Different DIY Shelf Initiatives
Should you’re searching for some extra DIY shelf initiatives, we’ve acquired loads of these:

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