I love upcycling furniture and reusing items to make something new and unusual to decorate my house.

I am not a hoarder, however, I like to collect things to make projects at a later date. For quite a while I have been collecting leather belts for a project. Looking in my bathroom, I saw we needed some shelves. That twigged something in my memory. In a small shop I saw the neatest shelves with strips of fabric holding them up. I immediately thought of my belts and how I could use them to make some unique shelves.

I went to the local Hardware store to buy some wood and I found an awesome piece of barn wood. It fit perfectly with my belts.

This is how we made two belt shelves. It is a simple design, yet very striking and effective. Everyone who sees them just loves them!

Supplies

Belts

Piece of wood

Screws

Construction Wall Anchors

Step 1: Needed Tools

Saw - one that you like to use or have on hand. We used a circular saw.

Drill

Step Ladder

Pencil

Tape Measure

Scissors

Sander

Step 2: Sand the Wood

- Before you begin, you need to sand the wood on both sides to make it smooth.

Step 3: Cut the Wood

- When you buy wood from a Hardware store it comes in a standard size of 6 feet long.

- Our two shelves are 29.5 inches long. You will need to cut the wood to this length.

- Using a pencil, mark the desired length.

- Using any saw you have on hand to cut the wood. We used a circular saw.

Step 4: Sorting the Belts Out!

- You need to choose belts that are the same width, they do not need to be the same colour.

- Cut off all the buckles on the belts and ensure that your pairs are the same length.

Step 5: Measuring the Shelves.

- Before you begin you need to measure the space where your shelves are going.

- Our space is 31.5 wide and 43 inches long.

- Because we have two shelves we needed to measure the distance from the ceiling to the top shelf,
top shelf to second shelf second shelf to the bottom of our measurement.

- You need to measure the length of the belts. Our belts are two different lengths.

- Our # 1 shelf (bottom) is 15 inches wide and our top shelf #2 is 13 inches long.

Step 6: Hang the Belts

- Once you mark with your pencil where the shelf is to be placed, use your drill to insert the Construction Wall Anchor.

- Bend the Belt in half and mark an “X” about 1/ 2 inch from the top using your pencil.

- Use the Drill to place the screw into the Construction Wall Anchor behind the Belt.

- Once you have done one belt repeat the process with the second Belt.

Step 7: Placing the Shelves.

- Once the Belts are in place you can put the shelves into place.

- Side them between the two Belts.

- When you have done the first shelf you can do the second one.