Basement Family Room - Picture Ledges

Let's talk about my picture ledges.

I need to go back in time to when I found them. I was actually getting some photo's taken for  my blog. We were out in this field of weeds, LOL, taking photo's when I spotted a pile of junk.

But unlike most people, when I see a pile of junk, I see unknown treasures!

Of course I had to check it out, and I DID found treasures, two runners from an old pallet.

I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, but I loved the chunkiness of them along with the weathered look and stamps on them. I couldn't pass them up so I loaded them into the van.

Fast forward to decorating the basement. We thought about using them as a mantel above the fireplace in the basement, but we eventually decided against that.

I still really wanted to use them though.

I finally came up with the idea to use them as picture ledges. Let me show you how we did that.

First, I used a scrub brush and some bleach water and gave them a good cleaning and let them dry.

These are not light weigh pieces of wood, they are chunky and solid wood, so we determined that they needed to be securely mounted.

We drilled three holes all the way through the face of the boards spacing the holes the same distance apart as our wall studs. 

Next we determined where the studs were on the wall, and marked them with tape. Then we used cardboard templates to find the placement of where we wanted the ledges to be on the wall, making sure our holes would line up with the studs and making sure we liked the way the ledges were going to be placed.

We used washers and lag bolts to attach them to the studs. Using the template we marked the center hole and pre-drilled, and then put the first lag bolt in, careful not to tighten it completely. 

Then we made sure the ledge was as level as we could,(said boards were very warped.) Once it was level we we stuck a pencil through the other two holes to mark the wall. Our drill bit was not long enough to drill all the way through the thickness of the board, the drywall, and into the stud. So once we marked the holes we just pivoted the ledge off the middle lag bolt and drilled the rest of the holes.

This allowed us to get the drill bit far enough into the stud.

We then pivoted the board back and installed the last two lag bolts.

I was super happy with how these turned out.

I'm especially loving all the character for free!!!

Now I just needed to put some cute stuff on my picture ledges, with out breaking the bank.

Ha Ha, I never break the bank!

First I found this framed canvas at a thrift store, that somebody had spray painted a word stencil on. I took it out of the frame and saved the frame for something else later. I then took the canvas off the frame it was on and threw that away. That left me with a wooden plain square frame, that I painted black. Next I had this amazing architectural ink print that I got at a thrift store for $2, and I glued it to the front of my black frame.

Loving how it turned out!

Cost $5

Next I had this old weird black box and left over pieces of wood from my slat wall. I stained some dark and left others in the natural wood finish. Then I laid them out on the black box to create a chevron pattern. I then marked and cut off each piece that was hanging over the edges. After a light sanding of the edges I glued them in place, creating an awesome piece of artwork.

Ok, one more project or really just a tip. I had family photos I wanted to frame, so I just went to the thrift store and bought black frames in the shapes and sizes I wanted. $2 each.

I know you are thinking, "You want a frog and Marilyn on your wall?"

No, I don't, just watch.

OK, so here is the final breakdown.

Total wall cost about $20 for all these decorations.

Everything is from a thrift store unless other wise stated.

Upper ledge:

Canvas frame with ink print $5

 Black block with a "R"$1

Marilyn Monroe frame with family photo $2

Thrift store mirror $3

Silk Pussy willow stems $1

Lower ledge:

Framed saying,(actually came with multiple sayings inside you can switch out.) $2

Frame I already had with family photo

orange vase a friend gave me with Ikea plant I had

DIY artwork from left over supplies Free

Framed photo I already had

Frame that had a frog print in it, $2

Here a look at my finished decor!

It makes me happy!!

What do you think?

Tell me about what you would put on your picture ledges?

And would you pick up stuff out a a junk pile?

Thanks for stopping by!