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DIY: Honeycomb Shelves June 29, 2017 04:00

Becky and I are both big DIY people. We love decorating and improving things around our homes on a budget.

I just moved into a new house last November and my list of projects is growing steadily. Instead of getting overwhelmed by all of my ideas I wanted to take a step back and share about a great DIY I did a few years back that has just found it's fourth home. 

UPstudio - DIY Honeycomb Shelf

This amazing honeycomb shelf now lives in my son's nursery (do you still call it a nursery when they are almost two?). I was inspired by a blog post on Design Sponge. I won't go through all of the details step by step, but I'll share some highlights and things I did a bit differently.

Drafting up plans for the shelf was the first step for me (probably that engineering background). I wanted to improve the shelf shared on Design Sponge by tidying up the intersecting corners a bit.

UPstudio DIY Honeycomb Shelf inspired by Design Sponge

Image source: Design Sponge

Below is my plan that covers the revised layout to eliminate corner issues, number of pieces needed, length of each piece, direction of angles required on each piece, and a takeoff for total length of wood needed.

UPstudio - DIY Honeycomb Shelf Plan

I used roughly the same lengths and all angles were still cut at 30 degrees, similar to the Design Sponge design. 

The benefit, is that my corners turned out a bit more finished:

UPstudio DIY Honeycomb Shelf Creative Corners

I built my shelf using 1"x 6" lumber, the cheapest I could find at the store that wasn't warped. I applied Gorilla Wood Glue to each piece prior to using a brad gun to permanently attach them. The wood glue was clutch, it really made everything feel more sturdy once it dried. If you are a fellow perfectionist, you can putty the heads of the brads and sand the area smooth for a bit more of a polished look. 

My shelf is currently on it's third paint job, to match the room decor. 

I also switched up the mounting design. I still used 'L' brackets but I like to hide the vertical leg by attaching it to the wall behind the shelf itself.

UPstudio - DIY Honeycomb Shelf Bracket Locations   UPstudio - DIY Honeycomb Shelf Hidden Bracket

I use three brackets, one at each intermediate horizontal piece. I make sure each bracket hits a stud (typically 16" OC) for added safety and shelf capacity.

We are always looking for the next DIY idea, have you tried any lately you'd like to share?