There’s a wall in our home between the kitchen and the living room that I think is the perfect place for some succulents. See, I have kept most of the succulents from our wedding alive, but there aren’t as many direct sunlight spots in our new place. They’ve been doing fine, but I’ve noticed over many mornings, that the wall just off the dining area gets a good amount of sunlight in the morning, and might make those little plant babies happy.
Initially, I was thinking that I would create some white, floating shelves to hold them all. Then one day, I found some that I could just buy from Target. I didn’t like the price, but I showed them to Matt to illustrate my idea. He pointed to another while shelf they had that was about half the price. It had the floating look as well, but there was a ledge at the end of the shelf so that you could lean frames on it or something. I was purposely avoiding that look, but when Matt said he liked it, I continued to think about it after we got home and decided that might be nice—it would also reduce the risk of knocking things off which sounded great.
So, a week or so later, I went to Target and got 5 of these shelves for only $12.99 each! They were 23″ long, and the space I had to work with was about 33″ long. I got everything prepped, and once I had made my marks on the wall that matched up with the hanging hardware on the back of the shelf, I ran a stud and electric wire finder over my marks. Bad news. The marks on the right side were about an inch or less from an electrical warning. I mulled over how I didn’t want to move the shelves to be off-centered, if it would be better to find something free standing, and if there was a way for me to move the hardware on the back of the store bought shelves. Ultimately, that was the plan of attack, to drill new holes in the back of the shelves and move the hardware over an inch or two. But, before I did that, I spoke to a friend of a friend who is apprenticing as an electrician. I picked his brain and ultimately, the most valuable piece of information was that most electrical work, per code, is at least 1.25″ in walls (and my screws were only going 1 inch deep). That, of course, might not be the case if the wall is very old and possibly not up to code, or if someone DIYed the electrical work poorly, but I know that our home was recently flipped—and flipped well. Based on my snooping of other similar units, I also know that the wall in question is new, so I felt good about tapping in a nail. Once that went in smoothly, I took it out and drilled a hole, put in my anchors, and then screws. Success! I saved myself a ton of extra time refitting the shelves, and learned some new information about life behind my walls!
Once all the holes were drilled and the screws were inserted, I just placed the shelves on them and got to start decorating! I am so extremely happy with how these turned out. And for only $65, can you believe it?! Not all of my previous pots fit onto the slim shelves, so I bought some small candle holders that look like mini glass pots from Hobby Lobby and just spray painted the outsides of them white. Then, I did some major succulent hair cuts and repotting. Happy succulent wall is a success. Love, Shauna
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