DIY Concrete Open Shelves

It’s so good to be finished with that bathroom remodel. But guess what? We already started another one! Our Master bath is in pitiful shape and way past due for a makeover. We are ripping anything out of this one though, except the floor. So no plaster and lathe to fight with. Yikes! But for now I wanted to share the tutorial for these DIY concrete open shelves from the tiny bathroom remodel. They are pretty simple to create and and they add great texture to the room, not to mention a nice spot for much needed storage!

This post is sponsored by Crates & Pallet. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post also may contain affiliate links for your convenience. See full disclosure here.

First, the shelf brackets we used are the 8″ forged steel from Crates & Pallet. They are super high quality and the finish on them is PERFECT. I’m super happy with the quality and the look. We will also be using the 10″ brackets in our master bathroom. Yay!

For the DIY concrete feather finish you will need:

• Henry’s Feather Finish
• a primed/painted board, size of your choosing
• a bowl for mixing
• something to stir with
• a putty knife
• sanding block
• measuring cup

Use a mixing bowl that you don’t mind throwing away! You will not need a lot of concrete to cover your boards unless you are doing a lot of shelves. Even then, mix only a little at a time because it will start to harden pretty quickly. Follow the mixing directions on the box. Also, the reason you want a primed or painted board is because the raw wood will wick moisture out of your concrete finish and cause it to crumble over time. We don’t want that! So either buy an already primed board or do it at home. I actually used some leftover white chalk paint I had to paint my boards.

Once your mixture is ready, use your putty knife to start spreading the concrete on. It’s like icing a cake. Make it as smooth as possible to save yourself from having to sand later. If you have some board still showing through, that’s okay, you can do two thin coats of concrete if you like. The edges are a little tricky. I covered mine as good as I could then once it started to dry a bit I used my putty knife to shave off the excess. Let it dry then sand until you’re happy. Be careful when you sand the edges as well. I actually knocked too much off and had white showing. I went ahead and installed my shelves like this then went back with just a tiny bit of concrete and used my finger to smooth those spots over. Let it dry then VERY GENTLY sanded.

You can seal them if you like but I left them as is. We’ll see how they hold up, if nothing else I can repair and seal if needed down the road.

I’m kind of a weirdo when it comes to installing shelves, I don’t know how y’all do it but I almost always attach the shelf to the brackets, then level on the wall and install that way. I dunno but it works for me! We used wall-dog screws  to install because this wall is plaster/concrete and it is a pain in the butt. However, these wall-dogs work on EVERYTHING. Complete game changing life savers. I sprayed the heads matte black to match the brackets before installing.

I used a square dowel to space on either side of the bracket so they would be installed in the same spot on either end. I didn’t want much of an overhang. You can install them any way you like though! This is just my preference. And Voila! Up on the wall!!

What do you think? I love how they turned out and think they look great with everything else in this space. Yay for pretty storage solutions. Thanks for reading along, let me know if you have any questions or if you try this project. It really is easy, even if it is a tiny bit messy.