Ask Jo: Shelving in my Living Room

Every so often questions and comments come from readers that I think others would like to hear my response to.  That’s when I feature them on the blog.  This is one of those days. Today I have some questions after posting about my cross stitch finish. You can read the full post HERE.

Susie asked:
“I love the creative cross-stitch finish! I also love your living room shelves … Sometime can you show us a picture of the whole set of shelves? (Maybe you’ve blogged about then before?) I like the pipes-as-shelf-supports idea, and I’m assuming Kramer or one of your boys installed them. I love the look! It feels modern, but old fashioned at the same time.”

This is my living room shelving.  Craig and Kalissa put it up for me last year at Christmas.  I paid for the supplies but they did all the work.  I LOVE them.  I had wanted shelving like this and Kramer was planning on doing it but he passed away before it got done.

Forgive the undecorated two tier tray.  I haven’t been anywhere that has some current season decorations.  UGH.  It’s a covid fail…but it happens and right now, Gannon and Georgia are at the TERRIBLE age when they destroy decorations.  So it’s a good time not to have anything….

My corner table Kramer did…I plan to paint the bottom of it.  That hasn’t happened yet.  The industrial lamp is from my brother.  My cross stitch lamp hangs out here too.  It’s a floor lamp and “my spot” in the living room is right here by the cross stitch lamp.

As for the decor on the shelves…it’s all simple.  I bought cheap picture holders at Hobby Lobby for the grandkids’ pictures.  When you have seven grandkids and not a ton of wall space, these little pictures work.  Parents aren’t good about getting me current pictures so I just print snapshots they send and print them on cardstock.  They I can update the photos whenever.

The other things aren’t special and most were picked up thrifting….The candle jars were 50 cents each…

There’s an upside down treadle sewing machine drawer to provide some height…  Some of my cross stitch too.

Most thrift store finds and a couple Hobby Lobby things.

The specifics on how to make the shelving it this….This is the board size we used…..

What holds them up are pipe pieces.  You need the base, the pipe and the pipe cover.  We couldn’t find black pipes so Craig spray painted them with a black matte finish paint.  These two pipes hold the shelf.

Here’s how long the pipes are….

Craig did a miter cut in the corner so the shelves could come together to create a corner shelf.  Below you can see that.

Craig spaced the shelves about 16″ apart from each other.

I love my shelves.  What got me wanting the shelves was that Kalissa has the same shelving at her house….only hers is not for the corner.  She has a nice collection of nursing things for her shelf.  She was so nice and sent me a picture so I could share it with you.

If you are looking for a way to get a similar look they have since come out with supplies that make is much easier…Check out this Amazon link HERE.

Here are a couple examples from there….

They also have the piping in black which would have made our shelf adventure easier…but we didn’t know they had it.

For my corner shelving we would have had to buy two sets of these for a total of 8 pipe brackets.  Kalissa’s would have only needed on set.

I love my shelving and sure wish we had known that these options were available.   All of the options I showed can be found HERE.

Now hopefully your significant others won’t be cursing me because you are adding another “to do” item to their list.

Thanks so much for the question Susie…If you ever have a question feel free to leave it in the comment section of send an email to rogjok@iowatelecom.net.