This is part of our Tiny House, Tiny Bloggers series, in which we turn over Plaster & Disaster to some VERY tiny bloggers to tell their own story of transforming an ugly, old (doll)house into a fresh and modern (doll)home. Follow it from the beginning here.
Disclaimer: Inclusion on this blog is not an endorsement by Plaster & Disaster of the tiny blogger’s methods or design decisions. Plaster & Disaster cannot be held responsible for your terrible decor choices after reading one of their tutorials. All opinions are their own.
Last month we shared our completed bedroom makeover for our little girl, Madison, and we were so humbled by your positive feedback! We know you usually come here to read Naomi and Sage, so it means a ton when you share your love with us too.
We were excited to reveal the finished result plus some of the steps along the way (like making the statement wall, whimsical giraffe lamp, coral dresser, and simple curtains), but one of the things you complimented most was the hanging shelves so we wanted to be sure to share a tutorial for those too. We’re pretty proud of how they turned out!
From the moment we planned the space, we had a vision of hanging shelves along the side wall for Madison to display some of her favorite decor/toys. We made the shelves out of balsa wood pieces and twine (both available at any craft store). We knew we wanted a natural wood tone to contrast against all the dark wood on the floors and walls, so we opted to keep the balsa unstained.
Our balsa wood pieces were each twice as long and wide as we wanted our shelves to be, so we started by cutting them in half length-wise with a gigantic saw and miter box. A smaller saw probably would have done the trick too, but unfortunately we had to rely on Naomi and Sage and their ridiculously oversized tools.
Then to cut them in half width-wise, we rigged up an improvised miter box because the pieces were too long to fit cross-wise in the actual miter box. We started by laying the balsa wood on Sage’s shop table, aligning the giant saw on top of the line we planned to cut, and then clamping two pieces of scrap wood on either side of the saw so that it was held in place except for being able to move back and forth. This allowed us to saw a straight, clean line through the wood, and then touch it up with a little sanding.
Next we knew we’d need holes for the twine, so to ensure that the holes all aligned, we stacked the boards on top of each other and drilled four holes (one in each corner) through all of them at once. Much more efficient and effective than the similarly-motivated debacle with Sage’s compound miter saw….
Then we were ready to string together the shelves!
This took careful work, using a needle to thread through each hole and then tying a knot below where each shelf would sit.
We used a scrap piece of wood as a spacer to ensure the knots were all equal distance apart, or the shelves wouldn’t hang straight.
Once they were strung together, it was time to hang them. We knew this would be messy work, so first we cleared everything out of Madison’s room.
Then we mounted hanging hooks on the top of the wall. We went with gold, because that’s the primary finish in Madison’s room (lamp, dream catcher, etc). Of course we considered rose gold, but we were worried it would clash a little with the room (because we went with coral instead of pink for the color scheme).
Next we started threading the top ends of the twine through the hooks.
First we tied the two back pieces through.
Then we did the two front pieces, aiming to get the shelves nice and level.
And then we trimmed the leftover twine.
The final step was to decorate the shelves! That’s always my favorite part! We added some of Madison’s favorite pieces, like an artichoke in a cloche and some more inspirational word art (we/she can’t get enough!).
We’re so happy with how this project turned out!
Oh and while we have you, we figured we’d quickly share two other projects in the room: her bed and the overhead light. The overhead light was very simple — we started with a piece of plumbing pvc that we found at Home Depot, and spray painted it gold.
Then we attached it to the ceiling with glue using Naomi’s patented technique:
And then we made a simple white shade out of paper.
Her bed was a gift from Sage, who happened to have it on hand from a tiny house she owned decades ago (her husband thought she was crazy for saving it, but it truly worked out!).
We thought it would really pop in the room in a dark color, so we removed the mattress and got it ready to spray paint.
We just hit it with a few coats of oil rubbed bronze, and it was good to go!
The bedding (sheets, duvet, and pillowcase) were super easy to make out of fabric Sage already had.
We just love how the whole room turned out through tons of hard work and creative energies!
