Plate shelf made from bed slats

I've been scouring the shops for a nice plate shelf, kinda like this one from IKEA, but without the curved bits. No such luck. So what's a girl to do? Make her own, of course:





This one was made from some old bed slats I had in my basement. They were the perfect size for what I wanted, so no cutting was required = even better! I decided I wanted two "normal" shelves at the bottom, for mugs and such, and a plate rack style shelf on top.

If you want to make one too, you'll need 6 bed slats (or 6 pieces of timber cut to desired length), and a piece of 1x1 timber cut to the same length as the bed slats. The latter is used to make a guard rail to keep plates in place - you could use a dowel rod for this, but I used what I had on hand. You also need 18 wood screws, 30mm long. And a drill and screwdriver.

I assembled a frame from 4 of the pieces first, by drilling two holes in each end of the side pieces, then screwing them to the top and bottom piece. I then decided on the distance I wanted between the fixed shelves - I wanted to be able to stack two Moomin-mugs on top of each other, so about 16 cm - and the placement of the guard rail. I then marked, drilled holes, and screwed the shelves and guard rail in place.

Two coats of paint later, and I was ready to hang my shelf. I used 4 metal corner braces for this - two on the top and two on the bottom.

Very pleased!

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