DIY Rustic Shelves That are Easy to Make!

Make sure easy and cheap DIY rustic shelves for any room in your house! These require minimum skills and tools and can be made for under $10!

Hi Friends! If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’ve pretty much remodeled my entire house over the past two years. I love the farmhouse vibe and wanted a peaceful and light feeling throughout my house.

I’ve finally come to the last room in the house… our master bedroom. I’m still in the process of updating this room but wanted to give you some sneak peeks and show you my favorite new DIY rustic shelves that I built.

So, here are the embarrassing before pics. I had already started taking some stuff down so it’s a little barer than normal, but this was how it looked.

We bought that furniture before we even got married, over 16 years ago! This was how I decorated the room when we moved into our house 14 years ago, so it was definitely ready for a facelift!

Over the next few weeks, I will hopefully finish the whole room, but in the meantime, I will be showing you bits and pieces. As you all know, I try to spend the least amount as money as possible on all my remodels.

This time it was especially true since really only my hubby and I see the room. But I did want a farmhouse feel and I really wanted a window seat somewhere in the house (more on that later!).

One of the first walls I tackled, was the small one with the lonely wall art on it. Of course, I scoured Pinterest and finally found what I wanted to put there…some super easy and cheap turnbuckle wall shelves by the sisters at Shanty2chic.com.

For the full tutorial on Shanty2Chic website, click here. They even have a great video tutorial for you as well. If you’ve never checked out their site, you need too! It is one of my faves and I love getting inspiration from them.

DIY Rustic Shelves Tips

I purchased all my supplies at my local Lowe’s. These are really easy cuts to make, but if you don’t have a miter saw, you can always have an employee from Lowe’s or Home Depot cut them for you.

I ended up making mine 33.5 inches long since I wanted to get one whole shelf out of one 1x4x6 ft wood. I bought 2 1x4x6 pieces and 1 1x2x6 piece and cut them all in half with my miter saw.

Instead of using my Kreg Jig as they did, I just put some wood glue in between the bottom and back pieces and screwed them together. Then I used some clamps to hold them together while the glue dried.

For the front lip piece, I applied some wood glue and then used my nail gun to attach them together. Once everything was dry, I filled in the holes with wood filler.

Let that dry, and then sand the whole shelf.

I wanted my DIY rustic shelves to be white so they would stand out from the wall. I also knew I wanted my turnbuckle shelves distressed a bit, so I first applied a coat of gray wood stain to both shelves.

Once that was dry, I painted both shelves with chalk paint.

Then I grabbed some sandpaper and sanded the edges to give the distressed look that I wanted.

Making Turnbuckle Shelves

For the hardware, I used Rustoleum hammered bronze found on Amazon here.

I laid them all on my HomeRight turntable and in my HomeRight spray tent, then just sprayed them until they were covered.

Once they were dry, I flipped them over and sprayed the other side.

Follow the directions to install the hardware and then hang them on your wall! I used a level to first mark where I wanted the hooks to go on the wall.

Since I had drilled screws in the back, the shelves didn’t totally lay flat against the wall. So, I just screwed one screw into a wall stud and they were good to go! I knew I was going to put decor in front of the screws, so I wasn’t worried that it would show.