Tag: hexagon

DIY: Honeycomb Wall Hooks

Written by Jenna on January 8, 2015. Posted in DIY. 8 Comments on DIY: Honeycomb Wall Hooks

I am quickly realizing that little girls need lots of storage. And no matter how much they have, it’s not enough…

As the end of 2014 closed out, I was determined to put the final touches on the shared girls room for my 2 daughters.

There really wasn’t a lot to do since creating the nursery nook, but it’s those little things that add up making it feel incomplete. Most of the walls were filled & looked fabulous, but the space around the closet needed something. After contemplating for quite a long time on what to do and knowing the requirements – fun + unique + functional + DIY – I was on the move. At the request of my daughter to also have something with a honeycomb design (similar, but different to my sons honeycomb shelves), I set out on creating these… Honeycomb Wall Hooks.

When Lowe’s gave the Creative Ideas Team the freedom this month to choice any style project – bloggers choice – I knew this was the spot for it! I had a blast making these wall hooks over the holiday break & my daughter is in love with “her” honeycomb creation.

If you’re thinking of creating something similar, this project is just an inspirational stepping stone to so many other great + unique possibilities. Different shapes could be used (think squares or triangles), different colors (green, blue, gray for a boys room), different arrangement (how about a larger area on a wall). These wall hooks are not only functional, but beautiful; they are the art of the space.

Here is what I used to create the honeycomb wall hooks

> (2) 1 x 8 x 6′ long – I created 12 hexagons, so the amount of wood needed will depend on the quantity you want to create

> Circular Saw – to cut hexagon shapes (see my recommendations for a circular saw here)

> Pencil, Ruler, and other general supplies

> Paint – colors of your choice

> Knobs – I found knobs at Lowe’s for .87, then painted them

> Drill

> Command Strips (or any wall adhesives)

To start out, I cut the wood into squares. The width of a 1 x 8 is actually 7-1/4″, so I measured and cut the length of the board using the circular saw in 7-1/4″ increments.

Once the squares were created, I made the hexagon shape. I started out with a strategy of how long each “leg” should be, but in the end, I just winged it by eye. It really doesn’t need to be perfect and there is not “right” way.

I lined up the wood with the saw and figured out that the angle of 22.5 was ideal to cut the angles for the hexagon shape.

Then I cut the 2 opposite angles. Flipped over the wood and cut the other two angles which created the hex shape.

Taking the easy route (and thankfully it worked), I made one hexagon shape and used it as a template to trace the shape on the other 11 pieces.

Before the painting process, I gave the edges a quick sanding with sand paper.

And then they were complete…

For the paint colors, I used what I had on hand. Either craft paint or wall paint works… I used both. I chose colors of pink, fuchsia, gold, white, turquoise, and coral (which resulted a bit darker, but it works). Using a foam brush (a regular paint brush would do just fine too), I painted all of the hex shapes the various colors.

I snagged wood knobs at Lowe’s for .87 and painted them white for the colored hexagons and mint for the white hexagons. And for the gold hex shapes, I used the knobs that were previously in the kids bathroom and added super glue to attach them to the surface.

For the wood knobs from Lowe’s, I drilled a hole into the wood block, then used the screw that it came with to secure them.

Last step… to hang them!

I had a bit of fun creating the layout. It took a few tries to get it how I felt looked best. Once the layout was set, I used command strips to hang them to the wall. This most likely won’t be a forever creation (what is in my house?) so these wall adhesives are great + they leave no damage to the wall.

I hung 10 of the hex shapes on the left side of the wall (since it was fairly bare) and 2 on the other side. Here’s the result of the honeycomb wall hooks.

Functional Art!

Within minutes this wall was girl-ified with jewels… costume jewels, of course!

Perfect for dress up too. Can you imagine a playroom filled with these wall hooks?!

I almost forgot to share a pic of how this space looked before… Incredible update, right?!

This room has had quite the transformation over the years starting as a nursery, then getting revamped to a big girl room with a 3-in-1 play tent. Once baby #3 (our littlest lady) came along, a new wall color was added and changes were made to accommodate a nursery nook. This gorgeous fun + functional wall creation was exactly what the room needed to be complete!

If you’re interested in the colors of the room, the deep fuchsia color is Benjamin Moore Royal Fuchsia and the mint color (which used to be beige) is Benjamin Moore Spring Mint.

If this project has inspired you, pin it to save for later!

Thanks so much for following along and I really hope you enjoyed seeing the steps I took to make this creation!

To gather even more unique, fun, and creative ideas for your indoor and outdoor Winter spaces, I would definitely suggest downloading the Loweâ€™s Creative Ideas app on your iphone and/or ipad. Iâ€™m always checking out the FREE app for great seasonal + do-it-yourself inspiration.

Also consider following Loweâ€™s on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram as well.

Disclosure: I am part of the Loweâ€™s Creative Team and was provided with a Loweâ€™s gift card to purchase items for my project. I was also compensated for my time to use the products. No one told me what to create, what to buy, how to use the product, or what to write. All opinions are 100% mine!

DIY: Wood Honeycomb Shelves

Written by Jenna on April 2, 2014. Posted in DIY, Shelving. 18 Comments on DIY: Wood Honeycomb Shelves

Even though we veered away from the original design for the revamped shared kids space, my son had his heart set on honeycomb shelves after I showed him the Land of Nod style. And since this mama can’t let her boy down, I had to pull through.

But instead of buying, what did I do? DIYed them, of course. After a little research & this post by A Beautiful Mess, I was confident to move forward.

Not only are these honeycomb / hexagon shelves functional, the whole ensemble is like a piece of art. And instead of painting the shelves a color or staining them a traditional wood finish, I chose an interesting blue hue which is in-trend and spot on with the other tones that I’ve introduced into the room.

Take a look…

The entire shelf composition runs the length of the twin bed, which is about 80″ long, and makes the entire wall truly come alive. This “installation” also parallels with my Lowe’s Creative challenge project for this month which focuses on introducing the submerged color trend of watery, cool blue hues into a project. With the size + interesting finish, this project is by far one of my favorites!

———————————–

Before we move forward, it has to be said that this project was a big challenge, but the bigger the venture, the better the result. I don’t often do large-scale woodworking projects and at times I thought it was going to be a big F-A-I-L, but in the end the honeycomb shelves MAKE THE ROOM. Take Away? Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Push through because in the end, it’ll be worth it!

———————————–

Like usual, before starting a larger scale project, I sketched out my idea and figured out the supplies I needed. This was the first sketch…

And then the shelves ended up evolving into this layout instead so not all of the shelves are actually attached…

Supplies I used:

(7) 1″ x 6″ x 6′ long pieces of wood – each shelf took approximately (1) board
1-1/2″ wood screws
1-1/2″ corner brackets
Plastic toggle anchors
Stain or Paint – depending on how you want to finish the shelf surface
Other supplies: miter saw, tape measure, drill, sander, level, pencil

To save on time, I often have my wood cut while at shopping at Lowe’s, but for this project, I cut it at home because of the quantity needed + the angles.

Here are the steps I took:

1. I set the miter saw to 30 degrees and never touched the saw again for the entire project. This angle is crucial so each of the 6 pieces will make the perfect hexagon shape. I approximated that I wanted each finished shelf to be an overall dimension of about 14″ x 14″, and chose the length of 7″ for the long side of each piece.

After marking the wood with my tape measure + pencil, I made the first cut using the miter saw. Then I flipped the piece of wood over to make the second angled cut.

This is what the first piece looked like when cut.

Then I cut about 42 more…

2. Before taking the next steps of attaching each piece to make the shelves, I layed all the pieces out to see how they’d actually go together.

3. Then we were ready to chug forward and attach these bad boys…

The first hexagon box was created using 6 pieces and all the angles faced each other. It’s best to stand them up on their sides, so the floor acts like the wall. The Mister (who was a huge part of this project as well) and I actually moved from the carpet to a flat, hard surface so the pieces would lay flat. The carpet was too cushy.

TIP: You must use wood screws for this project. We started out with screws, but it wasn’t working right (because we didn’t pre-drill), then changed over to using nails. BIG MISTAKE.

Once you have the angled wood pieces in position, first pre-drill the holes, then drill in the wood screws. If you don’t pre-drill the holes, the wood will probably split, which is what happened to us atfirst. Using a nail won’t work because they’ll pull out and the overall shelf won’t be stable / sturdy. Believe me, these are all lessons we learned along the way!

4. When the first box is complete, you can either be done or add on to it to create a multi-honeycomb shelf like ours. If you continue adding on to the first hexagon, you’ll use one side of the original hexagon to create the second hexagon. This time though, the cut angles won’t touch each other, but instead overlap. I’ll be honest, it does get tricky at this point and the shelves become a big jigsaw puzzle. We ended up with (1) 3 box shelf, (1) 2 box shelf, and (1) stand alone shelf.

Once all the shelves were screwed together, we were ready for the next steps… finish the surface + install.

It took me some time to determine how I wanted to finish the shelves. At first I was going to paint them, but then steered away because I wanted to see the wood grain shine through. That meant stain. But, what stain? In the end, I chose a gray / blue water-based stain by Minwax. The submerged color seemed perfect with the other hues in the room and was ideal with what’s on-trend right now.

5. First, I gave the edges and all the surfaces a good sanding with my orbital sander. Then using a rag, I applied the wood stain and almost instantly wiped it away so very little actually soaked into the wood. Because of this, the drying time was very quick.

6. About a day later, the shelves were ready to install. I first attached the metal angle brackets to the shelves. Then I determined the height + positioning of where the shelves would be hung.

Next, the Mister + I marked the holes through the brackets and pre-drilled the holes into the wall. As with hanging anything, I always love using plastic toggle drywall anchors (I shared a pic recently on Instagram).

Once the anchors were in each hole, we repositioned the shelves in place and screwed them in using a drill + screw. It’s key to use a level as well so the shelf doesn’t get installed crooked!

At this point, the shelves were almost done…

I loved the look of the blue shelves against the lighter gray walls, but I still wanted to make them pop. To do so, I chose to paint the front edge of the shelves a white color which matches the moulding throughout the room. Two coats later with a small, flat brush did the trick.

Lastly, so the metal brackets didn’t stand out so much, I painted those as well using the wall paint color.

And then they were finally complete!

Love the under-the-bed wood rolling carts? I shared the tutorial on how to make them earlier this week.

These shelves are perfect to fill with books, toys in containers, and any fun thing(s) to display.

And here is a pretty pinnable picture if you want to remember this project for a later date…

So what do you think?

Do you like the honeycomb / hexagon look? Have you incorporated this new trend into your home? What has been your most difficult DIY project endeavour?

To gather even more unique, fun, and creative ideas for your indoor and outdoor Spring spaces, I would definitely suggest downloading the Loweâ€™s Creative Ideas app on your iphone and/or ipad. Iâ€™m always checking out the FREE app for great seasonal + do-it-yourself inspiration.

Also consider following Loweâ€™s on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram as well.