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DIY Iron Display Shelves

Oh boy, am I excited about today's post!!  I had this idea months ago, and I am so happy to have brought it to fruition, and I am even more happy to finally share it with you! The story begins on a trip this past summer to see a good friend of mine who lives in Northern California.  She took me to the most amazing restaurant in St. Helena called French Blue.  (I wrote about it here)  The food was amazing, but I was completely swept away by the decor.  It was light and bright and organic feeling, and at the time, we were just finishing the 300 square foot addition off of our kitchen that had a similar feel as far as natural light and lots of windows.  I fell in love with these shelves, and it is hard to tell from this photo, but they are made of an iron grid material. Shortly after I returned home from this trip, I emailed French Blue and asked about the shelves.  I wondered, "Could I order them?"   The reply was swift and disappointing, as everything was made on site specifically for French Blue.  Super kind of them to respond back to me though, right?   I thought I could order the iron material, but after a little research, even that was a little out of my price range.  Since I had splurged on lighting (see here and here) more than planned (totally worth it by the way), I knew I needed to make this happen on the cheap. And then, my friends, the DIY stars aligned, and I found two eight foot pieces of iron in a local salvage yard for $30.  It was a complete surprise, as I was looking for something totally different.

Side Note:  My husband, when previewing this post, called the above photo "Inspiration" and the below photo, "Desperation", ha!

Now to most people, these pieces probably look like bad locker room shelves, but I knew they could make shelves just as amazing as the ones at French Blue.  The problem was the sizing.  They were 24" wide, and I needed them to be cut down to 12"; therefore, cut in half.  (The two pieces would make four shelves, which was what I was wanting.)   I also needed them to be six feet long, instead of eight feet long.  And because of all the cuts, the iron would probably need some extra strips of bracing.  Now I'm pretty handy, but welding, I cannot do.  Lucky for me, there was a guy that worked at the salvage yard that told me he could do all of this for $40.  Done and done. A couple of weeks later, I went to pick them up, and that's where the fun began.  Painting these babies.