How to Build a Liquor Display Shelf
If you are looking to add character to your living room or bar area, you might consider the addition of a liquor display shelf. Sparkling bottles of fancy liquors and elegant glasses add a festive touch to a room and shelves are not that costly to build. With a few tools, a bit of lumber and simple instructions, you can learn how to build a liquor display shelf.
Things You'll Need:
- 3/4 inch plywood or pine lumber
- Drill
- Sandpaper
- Tack cloth
- L-Brackets
- Stud finder
- Wood screws
- Screwdriver
- Hammer
- Jigsaw
Evaluate your liquor collection and take note of bottle sizes, heights and circumferences to get a picture of how much space you may want. Consider that you will probably want future expansion room as your collection grows. This should help establish space requirements and the number and length of shelves for your project.
Determine what wall you wish to use for the shelves and an approximate height on the wall.
Locate the wall studs. You can use a stud finder to locate wall studs or do it the old-fashioned way. Find the studs by counting over from the corner wall about every 16 inches. Use a hammer to lightly tap on the wall until you hear the sound change. Check the location of studs carefully because some studs are placed even further apart. You should hear a solid thud when you have located a stud.
Use a pencil to mark each stud. Determine where each stud is in the area you wish to build and mark the left and right side of the stud. Place an X in the exact center of each stud. The X is where you will mount a shelf bracket. For illustration purposes, you can mount a small shelf with two shelf brackets mounted on studs approximately 16 inches apart.
Place a L-bracket against the stud and use a pencil to mark the holes for drilling. Repeat this process for each stud that will hold a bracket. Drill holes through your pencil marks and screw wood screws through the holes in each bracket into the stud. Make sure each L-bracket lines up straight across from each other so the shelf will sit level. Each shelf should have a minimum of two brackets to support the weight depending upon the length of shelf you have chosen.
Cut the lumber to the desired length for the shelf. Use sandpaper to remove sharp edges and a tack cloth to catch sanding dust.
- Paint each shelf with a minimum of two coats of paint or stain. Select paint or stain colors, which accent other furnishings in the room. Allow the paint or stain to dry thoroughly and place the finished shelf on the supporting brackets. If you desire more than one shelf for a liquor display, you can repeat the entire process to add additional shelves leaving enough space between shelves to accommodate the tallest bottles.