Our DIY Reclaimed Wood Open Shelving + Fresh Flowers

We hung open shelving in the kitchen this week! It was a decision I touched on in this post, and we're so glad we went this route. After living in a construction zone for the past 5 1/2 weeks, it felt so good to have real plates and glasses accessible and pretty fresh cut (as in cut the day we ordered them!) flowers to admire. I needed this.

The open shelving project was easy and relatively inexpensive for the punch it packs in the kitchen. We settled on these brackets because of their low profile and ability to hold a 12" shelf (a little deeper than most standard opened shelving)--which we needed for our larger plates and pots we wanted to store on the shelves. We got silver, as opposed to their other black option, in hopes they would tie into the stainless appliances and they do--so perfectly! For the shelves themselves, we found an old reclaimed piece of pine at the lumber yard. We loved the scars and imperfections and, lucky for us, it had been sitting outside for so long, they didn't even charge us for the wood! We had them plane it down to 1" thickness and a 12" depth and 36" width (that did cost us about $40).

The planing down to size took the natural weathering color away, but left behind all the best marks. We tested a bunch of stains and settled on two coats of Provincial stain after a coat of wood conditioner. It felt aged but still warm.

I picked up one of these staining pads for $2 at Ace and I am thrilled with how painless (and lint free!) the process was.

We got at least one bracket from every shelf into a stud, but the other side we used heavy duty anchors that will hold over 100 pounds, so we can feel confident our dishware will stay put.

We actually tackled this project on Chris's lunch break, and as soon as he headed back to work I couldn't help but load up the shelves with a few plates, glasses, pots and bakeware. It's not necessarily what will be here when the kitchen is done, but it's perfect for getting an idea of how things will look--complete with flowers. May we always have fresh flowers in the kitchen!

I think it's one of those things, for me, that's easier once you are happy with the space you have. Like, it's easier to fix my bed every day now that our bedroom is coming together. It's even more enjoyable to do laundry now that our laundry room is done. And while it has been a goal of mine to always have fresh flowers in our home since 2013 (!!!), I know it will be easier now that our kitchen is just about done and I want it always to look its best.

When The Bouqs Company reached out about sponsoring one of our kitchen projects, I was thrilled with their concept. The flowers are cut the day you order and shipped the next day, so you’ll receive them sooner and they’ll last longer. They were shipped directly to our front door (in Idaho!) from a sustainable, eco-friendly farm on the side of a mineral rich, active volcano in Equador.

We've had this Marshmallow bouq, with the prettiest white Ranunculus flowers and Larkspur accents, for over a week now and there is no drooping--it seems like the blooms just keep getting bigger! I love that there's no teddy bears or cheap candy and the pricing is flat and affordable with free shipping--always. I'm already planning on ordering another bouq for the kitchen reveal, and another and another just because.

Special thanks to Bouqs.com for sponsoring this project. If you'd like to try the fresh flower delivery service, they are offering our readers 20% off your order using code GETBLOOMS. (offer expires 9/17)