Hello friends! Yesterday on my Instagram I was playing in the garage with another fun new high end hack! I love recreating home decor trends for you guys and I feel like it's been a while since I last did one. To me it's such an exciting challenge to see if I can make something similar to the high end original. Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware....they are all my go to stores to “shop” at online to achieve some amazing ideas of items I can possibly have in my home too with just a bit of creativity and basic materials. Every time I go about recreating things, I always try to take an approach of attainability for you guys. I try not to ever make anything unless I know it can be done easily! Nothing is worse then when you want to recreate something and there’s a long list of things you need to have in order to make it. In that case, why not just buy the item!?
I'm going to show you guys the original inspo pic I found. Now I am not familiar with this brand Amara, but the shelf caught my eye right away! They actually have this in a smaller version too and it looked like a good quality piece.....I mean it must be for $150!?
I wanted to make some new shelves and I thought it would be fun to do something creative with the cane webbing that's so popular right now. The first thing I did was look into the price of cane webbing and to my surprise it averages between $15-$30 per square foot! I had NO idea that stuff was so expensive!? Did you guys know? Holy smokes!! I even went to a few thrift stores to see if I could find any as well as popping into fabric stores....well there was nothing to be found! I couldn't very well spend that kind of money on this hack as it would easily up the price and again... why not just buy the shelf!!
Alright so here is my solution!! I went to my local Dollar Tree and went up and down the aisles looking for anything that would mimic the look of the cane and then came across this item in the bath aisle....
Rug underlay!!! I mean why not!? At least it's worth a try right! I opened the package and knew it didn't quite look like cane as it wasn't busy enough, and the little holes were too perfect and wide, so what I did was over lap the underlay onto itself, then just shifted it over and down a couple millimetres. You can see what I mean in the picture to the left of what I did. To me this was looking much more like cane and I was happy enough! Now it's time to get building the wood shelf.
Here's a few items you will need to make this:
Saw, I used my mitre saw, but you could use a hand saw if you are feeling ambitious
Braid nailer with air compressor, or even a hammer and some small finishing nails could work.
Drill
1 1/2 -2" wood screws
1x6 pine board
1x4 pine board
1x1 nailing strips
thin decorative moulding (optional)
Staple gun
Wood Stain (optional)
Sand paper
Here's a reference of my wood cut measurements I made using my miter saw
Now that all of my cuts are made it's time to assemble the shape of the simple box shelves. First thing I did was attach my 1x6 to my 1x4. I used 3 x 2" wood screws and drilled pilot holes first so that I don't split the boards when I attach my screws...this is a very important step!
Then I attached the 3.5" x 3.5" wood end pieces I made using my 1x4 boards so that it starts to form a box shape. I attached these with 1 screw underneath my 1x4 board and 2 screws through the back of my 1x6" board.
Next I attached my 1x1" nailing strips which already came in this brown colour. Perhaps they are meant for outdoors...not too sure, but it's all that was available in this size at my local Home Depot so I went with it. I attached them with my Brad nail gun going from the tops down into the pine boards.
So far pretty easy right?? Ok so this next step is easy too and don't expect perfection like I do. You are going to take 2 pieces of your 1x1" nailing strips ( 1 x 26.5" and 1 x28") these are the strips that your faux caning will be attached to.
Lay your rug underlay flat out. It measures 28" wide so use the entire width. Staple it right to the edge at the back of your longest piece, 28". Then take your 26.5" piece of wood and place that 4" down from the other board and underneath the rubber underlay...now staple that down. Make sure as you are stapling you are pulling it all taught.
Next you are going to double up your underlay simply by folding it over and on to the piece that's already stapled down, and don't forget to shift your pattern over a bit so it looks a bit more like cane webbing.
Cut along the bottom so that now you have 2 pieces. Staple that piece down as well. You could staple the 2 pieces all at the same but I found that trickier and my underlay shifted too much with the first shelf I made so I would recommend doing the 2 pieces separately.
Now that you have your front pieces constructed, it just needs to get attached to the front of your box. You may find you need to trim back about 1" on each end of your underlay first before you attach everything to the box. Again I used my brad nail gun.
I also used a little moulding piece of wood I had laying around in the garage. have no idea what this stuff is called but I did take a closer pic of it fo you guys to see it. I used that to cover the top back piece where you can see the faux cane was stapled down a bit....this is an optional step.
You can see in the video below how everything came together. The very last thing you're going to want to do before you bring them inside is a quick sanding. I just used some 320 grit on my power sander.
Voila! You are all done! It's easy stuff right!? In total this cost me about $20 in wood to make and I only used 1 package of the underlay from the Dollar Tree!
You can paint these shelves, stain them, or leave them a natural two tone look like I did....get creative and have fun styling these! I still haven't quite figured out exactly where mine are going....yes I do that all the time....make things and have no idea what I'm going to do with it once I'm done, lol!! I do it for the creativity you guys! I love making stuff and these were fun to make and share with you all, but for now I've decided they are going to live in our front living room and are filled up with books and some faux florals to pretty them up. I also think these would be super cute stacked above a toilet, in a nursery/kids room, even in a kitchen to hold cook books and spices....or a bathroom for extra bath products!! There are endless options on how to use these shelves.
Here are some final pics of the finished product! What do you guys think? Can you tell it's not real caning? To me it's a pretty good dupe!! The only think that does bother me is that my faux cane did not stretch all perfectly straight and I can see it's uneven....but oh well, no DIY is prefect right??
Thanks for popping by today guys! Please leave me a comment if you have any questions at all!
Enjoy your day,
Dale