How to add a shelf to a console table

Geez! I was supposed to write this post a while ago and totally forgot about it! Back when I redid our entry way (for NO money) I showed you that I added a shelf to the bottom of our console table. It was so easy and made such a big difference. Let me show you what I did so that you can make one for yourself.

This is what the table looked like before the makeover. I didn’t change a thing about it except for the shelf. 

I had the stuff below it so that it didn’t look so top heavy but didn’t really like the clutter. I was reading this post by Cassie at Hi Sugarplum and it hit me! (also, #goals)

Hi Sugarplum

I could add a shelf below. And EASILY because the table has square legs. Luckily, my neighbor and boss from when I was a teacher, was willing to cut down the width of a piece of wood we already had in the garage, with his table saw. We don’t have one of those. Hubby would have done it by hand but boy is a table saw faster..

I measured the width of the legs and with a square, drew the section that I needed to cut out.

Now here’s where I could have done better.. I didn’t measure the tapered legs at the exact spot that I wanted to install the shelves, and DUH, they’re tapered, so I cut the notches a little too big to fit flush… It’s nothing that anyone would notice but me and it wasn’t obvious enough to do it over so I left it as is.

We had scrap pieces of square trim and I cut those to size and mounted them across from the inside of the legs.

A couple coats of paint to the additions and I was done.

I styled it with the wooden box thing that I found at a garage sale and a stack of hubby’s books. For a while I tried to hide them, now I’m embracing the amounts of books we have. The magnolia flower bookend was here when we bought the house. I spray painted it green years ago.

I just love how much more balanced and sturdy it makes the table look. It was such a quick and easy fix and even though it gives me another surface to dust, just kidding, I won’t dust it.. I’m so much happier with this 15+ year old cheapy table now. A shelf was just what it needed.

So what about you? Have you even done a furniture “hack” of any kind? I think this might be a first for me!

Thanks for reading, friends

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