They're back! (A Tutorial)

Remember the picture shelves from the old house? I loved them so much that i brought 'em back! Only this time, i used door moulding from an actual door that we bought since we had to replace the door to the walk-up in the basement because of some water damage.

So, free shelves. I measured where i wanted them, which happened to be the side of the stairwell. It was the only space that made sense out of all the walls in this window-filled house (not complaining). So they couldn't be even like they were in the last house, and i had to make a lightswitch work for me, but i think i did an OK job planning this out. After Chris made the cuts and screwed them into the wall for me, i taped them off so i could begin work on them.

Since this moulding was removed from a door instead of just buying it on the shelves, it's a little bit bent and bowed and had a noticeable gap when screwed flat against the wall:

Nothing that some caulk can't fix. Am i right, ladies? Notice that when i taped, i made sure it was about 1/8" up the wall so that there would be room for the caulking to blend the shelf to the wall.

 Enter paintable caulk!

 The first step in caulking is to do a line, using enough to fill the space.

Then, immediately go back over it with your finger and help it to fill any of the seams and to make it look nice and smooth. This needs to be done in small increments so that the caulk doesn't dry out. I completed one shelf at a time since it didn't take me long as the areas are fairly small.

 This is what it looks like when it's all smoothed out:

 And this is what it looks like when you remove the tape (again, when the caulk is still wet):

 When i was done, the shelves went from looking like this:

 To looking like this:

After it dried, i taped them off again and painted them with Valspar's ultra white semi-gloss, just like the rest of the trim in the house, and was able to get away with two coats (gasp!). This is what they look like now...loaded up with pictures of my kids because what the hell else did you expect?

Now i'm able to overcrowd them just like i did before. On to the next project!