I have been looking for shelves for a long time – I’m quite fussy with shelves it seems! But they were either too heavy for our walls, too fancy or too expensive (usually!), and all my inspiration posts seem to be either custom made or extremely pricey.
Just deciding the style of shelves I was after proved tricky. After two years of living with bare walls in our kitchen I decided on a ‘shaker’ style for above our radiator, but again, couldn’t find any in a colour that was right (Etsy sell some great ones painted in Farrow & Ball shades here – but these weren’t the shades I was after). It was only after I was working on a paint project (with Morris & Co – a paid partnership) that I thought maybe I could find a basic style to paint myself.
On a whim I found myself on the Wickes website and typed ‘shelf’ and up came this pine shelf kit for £14. It needed a really good shade of paint to spruce it up but when it arrived it was perfect – not too chunky or country kitchen-esque (which I was concerned about as I wanted to keep a city-feel to our kitchen).
They didn’t need much sanding but we sanded them anyway (oh yeah, we bought two) and added an undercoat followed by three coats of eggshell – we needed to paint the brackets as well. Make sure you leave it at least 24 hours before attaching the shelves so there’s no stickiness to the paint.
I was nervous using yellow, as we have absolutely nothing else yellow in our home! But I felt that a pop of bright colour was needed against our dark kitchen cabinets and radiator. And we love it. The room feels so much more complete now and shelves are such a great way to add texture and depth to a plain wall – plus, they’re great for storage!
An absolute bargain. Just about to refresh my kitchen that is, black painted cabinets, wooden work top, now thinking ooh to muted yellow with it.