I Love That Store

Many square feet empty

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."  Bob Dylan said that.  In other words, some things are obvious.  My closet, not even slightly related to Bob Dylan, would say, "You don't need an interior designer to know this is wasted space."


Several weeks ago creativity got the best of me and began plotting to add shelves to this vast opportunity in my closet.  I measured, planned and bought the shelf.

Long bolt for a shelf support
Very strange nuts for spacers

Enthusiasm does not take the place of reading the labels on products, however.  The long shelf board was cut to lengths and the wall support installed.  When I tested the board against the wall, it was way short of reaching the front support.  I remembered the distance from wall to support being 12 inches.  I remember buying what I thought was a 12" wide shelf.  Sad truth was I needed a shelf 12 1/2" wide and the board was really only 11 1/2" wide.  One whole inch short of the front support won't work.  Shelves don't float on air.

Perfect, white-capped bolts to hold
the shelf

I headed out to the garage with an open mind and began to rummage through a bin of odd bolts and connectors.  That's when I fell in love with my favorite store all over again.  There in a bag with random pieces from past furniture construction was just what I needed: four long bolts, prefinished with white heads and some very odd nuts that would act like spacers to hold the shelf one inch back and tight to the wall.  WOW!  How does that happen?

Waste no more!

The end results are thrilling.  A great idea had slipped and fallen into all the wrong spaces and places and then came back looking like a champ.  Lessons from the Things I get to do today are write down the measurements, take a measuring tape to the store, measure the boards to confirm.  And I've fallen in love all over again with my favorite store, the place that provided the assemble-yourself furniture with options and extra parts for me to find and use for this project.