My house is built so that all the rooms are in a row, with a long, extra-wide hallway in the middle. This hallway is so wide, that you can leisurely walk down it side-by-side with your husband like a big weirdo, or with your arms out and elbows bent so you look like a robot. What I’m saying is, this hallway is wide and affords us a lot of wall space for hanging art. This last weekend, I cooked up a $0 project that I’m pretty darn proud of.
Behold, our new photo ledge:
This ledge was built with 100% found items in my garage. The wood is two long scraps of butcher block IKEA countertop Kyle’s mom had left over from a project at the cabin. The L-shaped brackets (which you can see peeking out in the center of the top shelf) came with the Ikea countertop, too. This project involved a chop saw, table saw, sander, and a drill. I also cut a thin groove down the entire length of the boards so the artwork won’t slip off if I happen to run down the hallway racing Osa (not infrequent in my house). Once I sanded these down, I finished up by coating them with teak oil for a really light, natural look.
More details:
Close-up detail of the groove I cut along the shelf, with a table saw, and all by myself: 
Speaking of using scary tools, I’ve been having a lot of fun using our new table saw my parents gave us for Christmas! It’s already come in handy for a number of projects, and I’m finally getting more comfortable putting it to use. Thanks, mom and dad 🙂
I’m really excited to continue to style these ledges and have them easy to change around whenever I like. This is the perfect solution for someone who gets restless with decor if it sits too long! I’ll probably try to mix short and tall prints, photos and books to add a bit more variety – though I’m currently loving these cute square photo prints from Parabo Press. The quality of the print and the heavier stock of the matte paper is fun for displays, and Parabo just announced that they are now permanently offering 25 FREE prints in the 4″ square size. Free. Click here to order some.
And if you’re wondering what else is going on in my luxuriously wide hallway, here are the other gallery wall sections of the area, and a shot of the entire hallway leading to the bedrooms:
Hey hey erin may 