Nursery Shelves

We are getting very close to transitioning the nursery to a big boy room.  The biggest change will be going from a toddler bed to a big boy bed.  I do not plan to make too many other changes…we still love the Plumage walls and the animal theme.  Changing the bed will be big enough since it will result in rearranging most of the room.

Before making big changes, I wanted to tackle some minor changes I have had on the to do list f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  One of those changes was adding shelves above the desk cabinet.  I had some decorative items sitting on top of the desk, but the boys have started messing with them…a two year old running around the house with a Tiffany & Co. baby china mug ( a gift from coworkers) induced a bit of anxiety.  I decided to add a few small shelves above the desk where I could decorate without the fear of the kids breaking or damaging special items.

Here was the before:

And, here is the after:

I tried first to install white floating shelves, but quickly found out the wall is completely uneven.  Floating shelves will only install properly on even walls.  Too bad I did not check first, because I ended up drilling all the holes and installing wall anchors before realizing the shelves would never sit flush.  They were totally unstable and had to be removed.

Then, I found these awesome little metal brackets at Home Depot.  They were super cheap, compared to most shelf brackets, at $3 each.  Home Depot only had these in white, but later I spotted the same style bracket at Ikea in silver.  These brackets screw into the wall and then the shelf rests on the lower lip.  They can actually be installed in the reverse as well to hold up the shelf.  I preferred the look of the metal brackets above the shelves almost like bookends.

I added two shelves above the desk.  They are a hung a bit higher than I might normally, but being a kids room I wanted them up higher.  Since the brackets were white I opted for natural colored wood shelves.  I found these at Ikea.

I really enjoyed styling these shelves.  I finally had a proper spot to put the cross-stitch art my dad created.  I used plate hangers to display the Tiffany & Co. baby china.  The white ceramic owl moved to the nursery a while ago, but now he has a proper perch.  A few books, small white box, and my collection of jacks completed the shelves.

I felt pretty comfortable installing the shelves in this spot, even though all the other furniture in the room might be rearranged soon.  This small corner in the room between the bathroom door and window is not useful for much else.  The desk cabinet fits perfectly here and I don’t envision moving it anytime soon.  When my son gets older and starts using the cabinet as a desk, the shelves can transition to hold his books and things.