I Built a Picture Ledge!

Big news! I built my own picture ledges and it really wasn't that hard! 

Here they are all built and holding art and family photos in my dining room. Aren't they so FUN! And, the best part, building them myself saved me sooo much money. If you were buying them from a store, a sold wood picture ledge 6 ft long is about $80-100. Sometimes more! I spent about $40 for the finished oak at Mendard's for each ledge.

Ok. So I've been seeing these picture ledges all over Instagram and Pinterest. And they're so attractive and allow for flexibility when arranging the art. I can pull some off and add new ones. Or add seasonal additions, too. But they are expensive.

Here's my inspiration photo. I liked the light wood and the mix of frames and images. And I love the light fixtures above them -- but that's another story.

OK. So armed with some DIY instructions and a firm idea of what I want it to look like, I headed to the trim aisles at Mendard's. After some testing -- laying out the wood on the floor -- I settled on 1, 2, 3 approach. 3" piece of trim for the back, 2" for the bottom and 1" for the front. Some might like 4" at the back, making it taller, but I didn't want that profile. 

Last, I had to pick the type of wood. Normally, I use pine because it's less expensive and very forgiving. But I'm not painting these ledges and I didn't like the yellow-y tint of pine, so I looked at other options. 

We laid out a bunch of wood types and finally settled on finished oak. It was a little more pricey than the pine or unsanded oak. But I liked the way it looked. All in 6ft lengths, so I didn't even need my circular saw. 

Once I got it all home, I got started. Here's how I put them together:

I used my favorite tool, MY NAIL GUN, to attach the front piece to the bottom piece. I didn't want to see screws on the front and that joint wasn't going to hold a lot of weight. I used a little wood glue, too. You can barely see them. 

The back piece I attached with wood screws, that theoretically sink in, so the back piece is flush to the wall. But here's where I hit the big snag. Even though I was pre-drilling holes, the screws were still stripping and not sinking in all the way. ARGH!

I had to use pliers to pull several of these out. The drill bit even snapped out in the wood at one point. I was more than a little frustrated.

Finally I stopped using the drill and got my nail gun out again after I got a few screws in just to secure the back piece. And am just hoping that it will all hold together.

I realized, DUH, oak is a much harder wood than pine and my drill bits were not made of the right stuff to stick with it. I guess I'll know better next time.

Overall, even with that snag, this was a SUPER SIMPLE project. It was mainly some assembly and then I screwed the back piece to some studs in the wall. Done and done. Just a few hours.

Now, on to figure out how to add a light fixture to the wall above the ledges without hiring an electrician!