Re-purposed, reclaimed and recycled are the buzzwords when it comes to furniture and home décor. And the online DIY darlings have been very active and inventive with their ideas. But when it comes to urban spaces and the problem of making small look big, or that of fitting it all in without cramming it up, then one needs to look at things creatively, yes, but also practically. And here is where comes in the concept of upcycling – all handy and hands-on at the same time with some real time cool effects to show for later. Now, here’s bringing together upcycling and storage solutions together in this piece on creative wall-shelves which are not store-bought but well-thought out household objects repurposed to make for some stellar shelves for some pretty on your walls.
1 Ladder shelf – Now this is a basic wooden ladder which is essentially a fixed-up beauty with shelves, which can be propped up against a wall and makes for a great open-shelf solution. Imagine using it as a bookrack in the bedroom or to prop some of your quirky pottery in the kitchen, or even as a vanity dresser to go with a full-size mirror on the wall. One can take an in-house wooden ladder of a modest height [in ratio to your floor to ceiling height], add some D-rings to the top of the ladder so that it can be easily attached to the wall, and have broad wood racks screwed onto the narrow ladder rungs to allow for more shelf space. You can, thereby, have your own easy-to-make ladder shelf and either give it a paint job to doll it up a bit more, or leave it looking all rugged and wooden for a Spartan natural look.
2 Magazine rack corner shelf – Do you have a lonely looking corner in one of your rooms? It can do with some creative fixing to become a very useful corner of the house, and all you need is a wooden/metal magazine holder which you might not be using anymore. So go ahead and take out that old wooden magazine holder, turn it on its side for a perfect fit within a corner and screw in all the sides to the wall for a firm hold. So, there you have a repurposed magazine holder corner shelf for some efficient storage and to add on some greenery indoors by propping up a planter on the shelf top.
3 Book bracket shelf – This one can easily become your favourite because not only is it deceptively easy to put up, it’s also a great way to showcase your book collection which will seem to be stacked against the wall without any support, as it were. All you will need for this one is a sturdy metal wall brace, the L-shaped metal brace with three holes, and a hardcover book to begin with. Once you have the metal brace screwed into the wall, you need to glue the back cover of a hardcover on the horizontal end of the brace to make it a secure base for the other books to be propped on top of each other, all on this minimal metal and book wall shelf.
4 Drawer Shelf – If you are giving up an old chest of drawers , then this is your chance to get creative and repurpose these drawers as shelves hanging onto the wall. This is a sure way to funk up your wall décor with some dressy drawers mounted on it, to be then used as shelves to showcase pretty objects or to even keep books, knick knacks, jewellery etc.
– Story by Shabnam Srivastava
