DIY Rustic Folding Shelf

Did you get a chance to see our Laundry Room Makeover? If you did, you may have noticed the DIY rustic folding shelf Mike made! I asked him to put up a big rustic shelf above the washer and dryer that I could fold out and use for stacking clean clothes…

The shelf would need to fold into itself when I wasn’t using it…easy right? He squinted at me and told me to give him a few days to figure it out! I wasn’t worried at all, he always comes up with solutions to my problems…

The secret apparently is this little metal piece!

He also distressed the wood – normally we use old wood but we thought we’d use new wood on this project and then distress it to look rustic…do you have a minute? If you do, I’ll show you how he did it!

What You Need:

* Wood- 2 pieces: 1 x 10 by 6 feet long (depending on the length you want)

*Hinges (3 hinges for a 6 foot shelf)

*Shelf Brackets (3 for a 6 foot shelf)

*Wood Screws for Brackets and Hinges (3/4″)

*Hand Held Butane Torch (for distressing the wood)- available at The Home Depot

*Chain (for distressing the wood)

*Angle Iron- Two 11″ long—>3/4 ” X 3/4″ —> at The Home Depot

*Stain–brown & gray (we used Behr Semi Transparent )

*Router or Wood Chisels

*Sand Paper / and or Sander

Measure the size you want your shelf to be…then cut your wood accordingly-

Route the edges …or if you don’t have a router, sand away! You simply want the edges to be smooth…

Mark the place you want your hinges to go…the longer the shelf…the more hinges you’ll need…

Our shelf was 6 feet so we used 3 hinges…

If you don’t have a router use a wood chisel to carve out a place for your hinges… 

This doesn’t have to be pretty- you just want the hinges to be level with the wood…

Double check the fit…

Sand smooth…

This is how your two pieces of wood will connect…***But DONT screw the hinges on just yet***

Now time to distress! Use a heavy chain…a hammer…anything to dent up the wood…

Then using this torch …

Burn the wood inside the dents you just made with the chain and hammer…

Now…lightly sand over the surface leaving the burned spots inside the dents…

Wipe on a brown stain…and then immediately wipe it off…

Next wipe on the gray stain and wipe off immediately…this just gives the wood a deeper color and we think it looks older using the 2 colors of stain…

Here’s what you’re left with…NOW screw on your hinges…

Measure your metal piece to go 2 inch’s past the width of one of your wood pieces…this will support the shelf when it’s extended…

Cut your metal to the right size using a hack saw…

File the ends smooth…

Using a drill – make holes for screws… *go very slow when drilling through metal- and use a drop of oil to reduce the heat so you don’t damage your drill bit*

2 holes will do! Now screw the metal to either side of the piece of wood that will be mounted close to the wall…

It’ll look like this with the screws on the underside of the back piece…

Hang your shelf brackets in studs…

Now, your shelf is out of the way when you aren’t folding clothes…And when you need it, it opens up to give you more room to stack your laundry~

Have a lovely day sweet friends xo

Laundry Room Before / After HERE