Veronica Hughes: The Pottery Barn look for WAY less

I'm excited about this project folks! It was a quick and easy and one of my favorite DIYs in a long time. And yes...it was in the family room. I know you've seen a lot of it lately! I didn't plan to do this so soon, but I did. So I'm sharing. 😉

Here's where I left you last week and I mentioned that I had a plan for that wall under the stairs:

It needed something -- I've had an idea for some time to fill the space and went ahead with it over the weekend. It was just hours before we were expecting company -- I ran to the hardware store for my supplies and threw these together SUPER fast!

I've imagined some simple display shelves along this wall for months. I stuck some painter's tape to the wall to figure out the sizes of each one and get an idea of how it would look. I built three, four and five foot shelves for the wall. I wanted to go down low on the wall as much as possible because it just felt right visually to me.

To build these you'll need three pieces of wood -- a 1x2, 1x3 and 1x4. You can also make it with a 1x4 on the bottom so it would be a bit deeper. I found the three inch to be fine but if you plan on leaning a bunch of frames I'd go with the four inch:

Easy tutorial for DIY picture frame ledges

I used wood screws from behind to secure the bottom piece to the back. Then I used my nail gun to secure the front trim to the shelf.

I used wood glue on the front part along with the nails, but it's not really necessary. Just an extra precaution to make sure they don't budge when the frames push against them. But again, the nails would be just fine:

I stained them with the Minwax color Provincial because it works with our floors so well. I've used it on our butcher block island top and frames on various projects like this one.

You can see here how they barely take up any space as far as the depth:

I marked where the studs were in the walls and then just screwed through the backs to hang them. I wasn't worried about the screws showing because I knew the frames would cover them. But if a couple show I'm not worried about it:

I got a few new frames from HomeGoods and used some I had. I printed out random photos from my phone on our printer at home.

We absolutely LOVE it. My husband and son both came to me at different times saying how much they like it! When the men notice you know it's good! 😂 Shelves with leaning photos turned out to be a great in between -- not too busy because I kept the frames to the same shape and only two colors. But it fills in the space beautifully because I went low and filled the wall:

$Pottery Barn picture ledges for a fraction of the price$

It's nice to get your photos off the phone, right? I'm SO bad about that. I grabbed pics from recent trips and random snapshots and I love every single one!

I especially love how they follow the angle of the stairs. It just makes it more visually appealing:

We have plenty of space behind the sofas but this would also work great somewhere with less room just because they're not very deep at all.

I'm so thrilled with these! I especially love that they were so inexpensive and quick. I made all three and had them hung in less than an hour. Now I'm thinking of where else I could add some! They would look great painted black or white too:

Filling an odd wall space with DIY picture ledges

I spent $30-something on all three because I went with select pine (it doesn't have knots). If you used regular pine and don't mind a little more rustic look (or if you're painting!) you would spend maybe $20? Not even that probably. Not bad either way considering this one from Target is much smaller and priced at $13. And this four foot one from Pottery Barn is $129!! CHOKE. (Affiliate links.)

I love when it comes together like it looks in my head! Always a bonus. Now, onto other spaces, I swear! :)

Have you tried these simple DIY frame ledges? They give you that Pottery Barn look for way less.

Check out more recent gallery wall ideas below: