Simple Kitchen Shelf Made from Scrap Wood

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, our kitchen is small. I’m always thinking about how I can use the space we have more efficiently.

We had an undercabinet range hood over our stove that was really serving no purpose. You had to plug it in each time you wanted to use it, which required an ugly cord draping down to our countertop outlet. It was large and dark, making the kitchen look even smaller. We're also not huge cooks, so having a hood really wasn't necessary for us.
​
The hood was easy to remove, I just had to take out four screws from the top where the hood connected to our cabinets. 

​I luckily had just enough kitchen backsplash tile left to patch in the area where the hood was. In my opinion, it’s always smart to buy a little extra tile than you think you’ll need because they will come in really handy in situations like this one. I’ve found that tile styles change fast and it’s hard to find the same tile months down the road if you’re looking to purchase more. Click Here for a step-by-step tutorial I posted about tiling. Applying and grouting tile is one of my favorite projects!

---

​As I was tiling, waiting for the adhesive to dry and then for the grout to dry, I was working on the shelf I planned to put in place of the hood. This is where things get exciting (to me anyway). I discovered “Value Wood” at Menards!

This wood is basically scrap wood - cut, dinged, imperfect – just my style. And best of all – it’s cheap! I ran across a piece of wood for $1.75 that had the best character. It had a sunken knot and was splitting. It was perfect. I applied three coats of stain and satin polyurethane to it, and ended up falling in love with it even more.

​Once the stain and poly dried, I attached two shelf brackets to the bottom using short screws. I attached them in a non-traditional way because I wanted the arches of the brackets to show under the shelf and I knew I wouldn’t be putting anything heavy on it. I really just needed something to hold the shelf in place. I then secured the brackets to the cabinets by predrilling holes and inserting medium length screws.

Installing a shelf is a really small thing, so I feel kind of dumb for being so extremely excited about how it turned out. But I’m obsessed. It changed the look of the kitchen completely and gives me a functional shelf that I can use in a variety of different ways.
 
What is one small thing can you change up that has the potential to make a big difference in the way your home looks and/or functions?