Repurposed Shelf Brackets from a Chair :: Installing a Shelf to Hold TV Components

jb bartkowiak

12 years ago

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So we got this chair, teak, with three others just like it, and it was originally in better shape. We got the matching table too as a hand-me-down from my dad and his wife. (We wonder sometimes even at 40 why we are subject to the h-m-d, but nonetheless . . . thanks guys.) While it sat neatly on their pool deck, and with our patio not quite addressed, it ended up rotating locations on our lower lawn. It did an effective job of avoiding the lawn mower, and it worked happily to support the people on the few occasions that we happened to entertain. Until well, now. Today the story of how I repurposed shelf brackets from this chair.

Editor’s Note: Try to hang on to the end for two bonus projects. 1) Installing Antique Window Toppers & 2) Hanging a Salvaged Stain Glass Window. (Click to Jump right down.)

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And working with my other me (yes, Justin Bieber), we got to hanging this flat panel TV. I talk a little bit about that in this post >> The Hardest Part of Do It Yourself Is, Well, Doing it Yourself.

Date: April 18th, 2011.

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Note the location of our TV components in this picture.

Date: December 4th, 2011.

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Shopping for TV Consoles & Shelving

I mean — I wasn’t necessarily digging on the TV consoles, credenzas, crates, shelving, brackets and etceteras I found in our price range (read: at many of the more popular home (furnishing) stores).

I did have what I thought was a gorgeous slab of salvaged fir; you can see it sitting on the rungs below the chair in the first picture. We had previously used a chunk of it as a cap/ledge in the “bath under the stairs,” I’ll tell you about that one one day . . . our first house.

I mean — the worn fir fit the feel I was going for. Plus, I could actually control how deep I wanted to make it; I could and would cut it. Oh and Oh, oh yeah, and it would be . . . free.

But then again the brackets I found too weren’t really cutting it either. They seemed either not beefy enough, were too decorative, or were, well, too utilitarian. As a fall-back, I bought some large L-brackets at the home center, and a set of these (below) from my local IKEA. But I was still going to have to think about it.

One thing if anything that that there bracket did for me was . . . to provide inspiration. I liked the way the design of it would hold the installed shelf out from the wall just a bit. Ideal of course for the space required with installing the wiring of, idk . . . TV components: TIVO, a Blu-Ray player and such.

But I just needed the material to, well, make something from.

Meanwhile, that chair, while I likely could have repaired it, sat just near my infamous dump pile (*cough* shout to Bagster there). I mean — it sat there going on something like a month; just looking for some love, then it occurred to me – I could repurpose that chair.

Here’s How I Repurposed Shelf Brackets from a Chair:

Disassembled the Chair & Made Some Cuts

Cleaned the Worn Teak up on a Table Saw

And Designed on the Fly

And I did think briefly about mounting my “shelf” directly to the undisturbed cross brackets of the chair. But how?

Nah!

In the end, I bailed on that thought. And this instead is what I came up with. (Nailed, Screwed & Glued… And maybe Tattooed.)

But the wife (Mrs. Moxie) didn’t like the look of ’em unpainted. So . . . and since I was ready to paint these here window toppers, it was easy selecting a color.

Painted & Sealed the Brackets

While I didn’t clear coat the valances/boxes, I did do a quick clear coat on my shelf brackets. I had some spray-on polyurethane lying around, and it was puuuurfect for this task. (Maybe you’ll note too that I “clipped” the ends of each board for a more finished look. I liked that.)

Would This Article Also Help? RePointing Brick || A Porch Foundation Repair

Fixed (as in Set) the Spacing of the two Shelf Brackets

I cut down one of the dowels from the chair originally used for cross-support.

Assembled the Shelf

I set my two brackets and then screwed my now cut fir shelf to the brackets using tan deck screws.

I drilled my countersinking(s) for the bolts that would eventually hang the brackets using a 5/8″ paddle bit.

Deck fasteners make for, well, great general purpose fasteners. These SPAX lags worked wonderfully and were really the only expense for this entire project. I choose 1/4 in. x 4-1/2 in. Powerlag to pass the brackets, 3/4″ paneling, plaster, lath and had the hope of possibly hitting a stud (not quite sure if I did).

Installed the Shelf

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Set the Components & Considered Cord Covers

Once installed, it came time to place the components on top. With components, of course, comes cables. While I considered (briefly) burying a raceway in the wall when we did that work, I didn’t. The reason was, well, at that time I really wasn’t sure what we wanted to do. Later, I considered CordMate conduit, but did ultimately skip that too. (Maybe the 12 ft. Kit which I have used before.)