We moved into our house back in January and I've been the queen of half decorating. I get a room partly decorated, stumble on a road block of some kind and put things on hold. Only my track record is such that things get put on hold pretty permanently.
We have one wall of our living room that is one of those long, empty walls - and the way our furniture is set up, it's home to a loveseat and a side table. With this arrangement, there is a lot of excess wall space left to decorate and I've been looking for a few ways to bring height and visual interest to that wall.
Enter Pinterest and the amazingly talented ladies at East Coast Creative.
I loved this idea because it a) seemed simple enough for a decor rookie like myself to pull off and b) adds a little something extra to my expansive and blank wall. Check out what it looked like before we pulled off this neat little trick.
Are you yawning from the boring-ness?
So off Jamie and I went to Home Depot for supplies. After waiting around for approximately 42368930 minutes we finally tracked down someone who would cut a board for us. (No lie, we were there forevuhhhhh) Then we grabbed stain and 2 "L" brackets.
There aren't any real exact directions here but you'll want your board to be about as long as the piece of furniture you're setting it behind. Mine was 5 feet.
Now, get to staining that board! I started by sanding the board on the top, front and sides with 120 grit sandpaper. I also recruited some cheap child labor for this...
After we were done sanding, I wiped it clean with a dry rag and painted on the stain. I put a couple of coats because I wanted it nice and dark - and let it dry for about 15 minutes. When it was dry, I wiped off the excess stain with the cloth. My can of stain said to let the board cure for at least 8 hours. It's a little humid here, so it actually took closer to 2 days for mine to fully cure. Parts of it stayed a little tacky/sticky, but after 2 days (and eventually bringing it inside to the air conditioned house) it cured nicely.
When my board was ready, I measured up on the wall where I wanted my "table" to be. It was about 35 1/2 inches up. Installed my "L" brackets with a couple of screws (and anchors!) and...voila! "FAUX" sofa table.
Yippeeeee! This looks so much better than the boring ol' plain wall that was there before - I absolutely love how I can add some small decor touches there to bring a little interest and fun to that wall. And notice the ladder bookshelf there to the right? Also new - nice and tall to take up some of that big empty space.
I'm proud to say that my living room projects and ideas are back underway!
Hallelujah!
