{House}: Some finishing touches...

Way back in April of 2011, I blogged about my "reveal" of our kitchen:
http://www.makinitinmemphis.com/2011/04/kitchen-renovation-reveal.html

The reveal didn't really get much traffic until it was highlighted on two blogs - the first one was Better After, a great blog of before and afters:
http://www.betterafter.net/2011/05/yellow-fever.html

The second blog was Young House Love, which absolutely rocked my world. I still can't believe John and Sherry shared my kitchen with their world!

My post about it:  http://www.makinitinmemphis.com/2011/11/oh-hey-john-and-sherry.html
Their post about my kitchen: http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/11/reader-redesign-ranch-re-kitchened/

At some point someone made a comment about the space above our refrigerator and it made me realize something that has been bothering me ever since...

The commenter mentioned how the space above the refrigerator looked bare and that I should put something up there. Ever since I've been thinking about what to do.

A few months ago I decided I wanted to put a shelf above the fridge. I decided to look for one at IKEA when I went to Atlanta this summer. While down there, I came up with the idea of buying brackets and making a shelf:

The brackets that I bought were the Ekby Valter. I bought three of them and they sat around the house for the next few months. And then I got a wild hair and decided to finally make a shelf for the area.

We had let the stuff pile on up top of the fridge and it was getting a little embarrassing... Here's a true before:

So it was off to Home Depot. I got a board cut to size (measured the fridge and made it just a bit wider than the fridge) from the lumber department. I wanted something that was 12 inches deep so it would mimic the upper cabinets of our kitchen and not look too shallow atop the fridge. I also got a smaller piece of wood to make a lip to beef up the shelf and some Power Grab (recommended at Home Depot instead of Liquid Nails) to make my shelf.

I took the glue and dabbed it on the bottom of the small wood piece and held it in place for a few minutes and then left it alone for a few hours. When I checked on it, the shelf was holding in place excellently.

The next step was to spray paint the shelf. While at Home Depot, I finally caved and bought these little Painter's Pyramids and I have to say I'm so glad I did. It really helped with this project and getting paint on the bottom of the shelf.

One last picture of the shelf before I spray painted - notice the lip that I glued on?

I picked a black spray paint with primer in the paint. First I did a thin coat to start off:

The key is leaving it alone for a while to dry. Here is after the second coat (and flipping the brackets):

After letting the shelf dry overnight, I put my guy to work. First he mounted the brackets to the wall and then drilled the shelf into the brackets:

Once the fridge was pushed back against the wall, I added a print from zulily I bought over the summer specifically for this project (with a cheap frame from Michael's) and two canisters that we had in the kitchen.

I love the completed look this "finishing touch" on the kitchen gives the space. 

So over a year later, we finished yet another project in the kitchen. And I love the result!

Before:                                                                                      After:

       

In spraypaint and shelving,