A cheap & easy shelf FOR THAT blank spot OVER THE TV

Ding dong, the bare spot above the TV is dead.

Remember how it used to look like this for a few years?

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And then we graduated to a bigger TV and kept an eye out for the ideal media cabinet for another year or so.

And then we finally got here with the help of a $59 cabinet that we found at a thrift store…

Whew. So delighted it’s NNM (nekkid no more). Don’t mind that power strip on the ground, I’ve considering that shoved it behind the media cabinet to hide it.

Dang it feels good to be a gangsta have a shelf there.

We actually debated a bunch of options for above the TV (hanging frames/art, something 3D in the “wall decor” category, hanging a ready-made shelf, making one of our own so we could pick the length, depth, and the brackets, etc). The last idea won out thanks to keeping an eye out for anything in any of those categories for the last few years, not finding anything that worked/we loved, and finally taking matters into our own hands and making something that fit the wall perfectly.

The good news? It only took us a few hours and around $20.

As for how we made it, we picked up a 10″ large poplar board from home Depot and just cut it to length and supported it with some store-bought brackets, also from home Depot. Oh and the overall finished shelf length is 56″ considering that the media cabinet under it is 60″ (we thought that was a great compatible length).

When it pertained to the color of the shelf and the brackets, we primed and painted them both white (the brackets were originally silver), just because we didn’t want the shelf to be bold/contrasty (we wanted it to layer into the room like the white frames over the sofa, the white mirror over the desk, etc).

We also made a decision that putting the brackets on the top of the shelf instead of under it would keep everything on the same plane – instead of having potentially distracting brackets poking out from the bottom of the shelf and encroaching on the TV. It’s absolutely one of those to-each-his-own things, but we like the brackets up top in here considering that we have brackets under the shelves in the kitchen (Ikea sells some shelves with brackets on top, so it’s apparently a pretty common thing).

We just didn’t want the shelf itself stealing any attention from any zombies, white walkers, or dignified Brits that we might be enjoying on the TV below it (feel complimentary to guess what three shows we just referenced). #nerdsforlife

Then we just used heavy task anchors that were guaranteed to support a lot a lot more weight than we’d ever put on that shelf to safe each of the brackets. We also added some extra strength adhesive to the bracket bases before screwing them into the face of the shelf for added insurance. lots of people screw and glue things from above and it holds great and firmly, so it’s not needed for the brackets to be under the shelf in buy to support it. Let’s just say that at least three Clara’s could theoretically hang on it…

Oh man. could you lick these flowers, or is that just me? They’re called rhinocerus ranunculus.

I can’t tell you how much better it is to sit on the sofa without having odd “ugh, this wall has been blank for years! Dude get ON THAT!” thoughts.

Now I can just sit with my feet up and dust my shoulders off, Jay-Z style.

As for what’s living it up on our new shelf, I leaned a few frames that we already had up there (and even used poster putty on the base of them to keep them great and secure). inside of them we have:

a “squeeze the day” page from an old Boden catalog that I’ve always loved

a blue botanical print from Ikea a while back

a polaroid of John and I at one of our book signings (we realized we didn’t really honor those in any way – and I even used some Clara art to make a pleasant yellow mat behind it)

Of course there are also those pretty fresh flowers that’ll die in a week or two and then I’ll find myself sitting on the couch thinking “ugh, those flowers are dead. Dude get ON THAT!” – but the good news is that I’m now the pleased owner of pretty West Elm paper flowers (more on that here) so those’ll hopefully pick up where the real ones left off.

And then I’ll just get to sit on the sofa and concentrate on the zombies. As it must be.

Oh but before I go, blam:

Can you believe that’s how this wall of the living room looked on the day that we moved in?

Now it’s all “look at me now.”

What do you people have over your TV? A mirror? A plant? A zombie action figure (you know, to complement the real ones on TV)?

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