Simple pine shelf (Part 1)

Simple pine shelf
One of the most rewarding aspect of our house purchase was finding an  abundant supply of old (but sound0 wood. In our spare room hangs a beautiful pitch pine shelf, stripped of 60 year of paint and waxed to perfection. We really wanted to place another shelf beneath it for ornaments and books and, with this in mind, we boldly decided to suspend a second shelf, made from some more selvaged wood which we had in stock in the workshop out side.
Step 1
I unearthed a piece of old fence panel from the shed and a square baton, (this must be scrawed into the wall for support).

Step 2
I cut the plank to length.

Step 3
As the panel was quite mucky, I gave it a light sand all over. (I didn’t want the wood to look over prepared so I was careful not to be too enthusiastic!)

Step 4
When I was happy with the finish, I waxed the plank. I am usually a big fan a Briwax but on this occasion I thought I’d try Colron dark oak finishing wax. It is odouriess, easy to apply and the colour gave a nice tone to the wood.

Step 5
I had a rough idea how the shelf would be supported. I like the look of rope and wood together and I laid the plank down to experiment with various rope shapes. I settled on this pattern, keeping all the angles at 90 degrees. The rope is going to be threaded through eyelets, screwed into the higher shelf.

Step 6
Now I had decided on the rope position. I drilled four holes, wide enough for the rope to go through.

Top Tip

• Wrap the sandpaper around a block of wood; this will make the paper much easier to handle. 

 Part 2