Hexagon Honeycomb Shelf tutorial

 I am in the process of bringing my 2 year old son's room from nursery to toddler room, and have a large wall that needed something fabulous. I have been drooling over hexagon/honeycomb shelves lately, but couldn't find a simple tutorial, so I decided to create one for myself, and for you. 

Everything I needed for this project came from Home Depot. Everything. I love one-stop-shopping!

You will need to decide the depth of shelf you want. I went to Home Depot, and got three 1x6 boards. I bought 8' lengths. I bought the cheapest wood I could find. I just made sure to find the straightest pieces. I used pine, because it is light weight.

The first thing you do is to set your miter saw to 30 degrees. That means you rotate the blade on top to 30 degrees. I did this by turning a knob on the back of the saw. You leave the bottom alone at 0. It will be straight in front of you. You will leave it this way for all the cuts. You will be flipping the wood with each cut, not the blade.

Next, decide the length you want for each cut. I started with 10 inches, but that produced too large a hexagon for the space, so I ended up cutting the pieces down to 8 inches. This makes for 16 inches from point to point. So just figure that the widest point will be double the length of your original cut. I am sure there is some mathematical formula to this. I should have listened in geometry class...

I figured out after the fact, that it would have been better to use a sewing measuring tape, because you can lay the end of the tape right on the end of the angled wood, and get a more accurate measurement.

Make your first cut, then flip the wood and measure for your next cut.

Repeat this process until you have cut all the wood. I made 7 hexagons with 8" cuts, and spent $23. I even had leftover pieces to spare.

Now, it's time to put them together! I recommend using wood glue on all the seams for extra reinforcement.

You can pin or brad the pieces together. I like pinning, because it leaves virtually no hole. You can barely even see where the pins go in. Pins are not as strong as brads, so you will need to think about the weight of what you will be putting on the shelves, and decide what to do. You need a micro pinner if you choose to pin. I love mine. Okay... it's my husband's. He lets me borrow it.

I made all the cuts, and put them all together in under 2 hours. This project was so fun to watch come together! Just something to keep in mind: Wood is sometimes warped. Some pieces may be thicker than other pieces. You might have to muscle some of the ends together. Don't worry. The finished product will look great!

Next, it was time to paint. I found the perfect mini paint roller at Home Depot for $1.97. It is 3in x 1/4in nap, by BEST. I just used sample sized paint in the colors I chose, and had more than enough.

For hanging, I used sawtooth picture hangers from Home Depot. I hammered them into the back top of each shelf. You could hook the shelves together, but I wanted to have the option to be able to separate and rearrange them in the future.

I like mixing up the colors, and did an odd number of shelves.

These are so easy, that they are kind of addicting. I am thinking I am going to make a smaller and deeper unit to go in my bathroom.

Be sure and check back to see what I am doing with the rest of this toddler room. It is adorable!

I will be sharing the tutorial for these shelves live on Studio 5 this Thursday. I hope you will tune in at 11mst, channel 5, or watch it online.

Have a Happy and Creative Day, and go build some shelves! You know you are thinking about it...

Risa