I can't believe it's almost time for the final One Room Challenge reveal! Agh! We still have a few things to do and it's down to the wire! If you're new, here's what I've shared so far:


Week 1- Our plans for a Fresh and Kid-Friendly Office Nook
Week 2- Figuring Out the Shelves
Week 3- Shelves, Brackets, and My Secret Weapon for Shelf Styling
Week 4- Installing a Floating Desk - Finally!
Week 5- Canceled
Week 6- How to Make Shelves With Two Narrow Boards

Now that you're all caught up, here's how we hung the shelves we built last week, or here's how we should have done it (spoiler alert- we had to start over after hanging the first few brackets!)

First, if you're using the same brackets we did (and even if you're not), check out their installation guide. That would have saved us some time. Turns out we could have bought special hardware so that we didn't need to worry about attaching the brackets into the wall studs.

But since we didn't have those bolts and were rearing to go, we did it the hard not-as-easy way. skipping our first round and going straight to what worked (but if you're curious, it's all saved/shared over in the "DIY shelves" highlight!), here's what we did:

If you're attaching to studs, use a stud finder to find, and mark them. Once they are marked, you'll have to identify which studs to hang the brackets on. This is where you have to use your judgment. We had 5 brackets for each shelf but once we determined where the studs were, it made more sense to use 4. Using 4, we could have them almost evenly spaced and still hitting the studs. We used painters tape to visualize- I highly recommend doing that before screwing anything in.

Ignore the 3 brackets, but look at the tape- this is how we decided where to put the brackets the 2nd time!

We also had to decide how far apart to space them, so we used a shelf in Joe's office for reference. After measuring that shelf (it's this one) and holding the brackets up on the wall to visualize, we went with 14 inches of space from between the shelves.

Once we knew where to place them, Joe started with the top shelf (starting with the bottom would have made it difficult to get to the top) and marked where the screw went, using the bracket as a guide.
The screws for the brackets were heavy-duty bolts, so he first drilled a pilot hole with a smaller drill bit to avoid splitting the wood on the wall.  Once the pilot holes were drilled, he used a socket wrench to screw them in. This was necessary because they weren't "normal screws," so a screwdriver wouldn't work and we didn't have a drill bit large enough for the drill.  He did the top screw first and left it slightly loose and then used a level to make sure the bracket was straight before drilling the pilot hole and screwing in the bottom bolt for each bracket.

Once the top brackets were in, we placed the shelf on top and once it was centered and just where we wanted it, Joe secured it to the brackets using the same process of drilling a small pilot hole and then screwing in the bolts.  He then repeated the process for the bottom shelf brackets, also using the level to make sure the bottom and top brackets were lined up.

I am just realizing I recorded more than I photographed, so check out the DIY shelves highlight over on Instagram to see more of the process!

Here's how it's looking so far (saving the wide shot for the reveal ;)!