Before I show you what we’ve been up to with the craft closet project I wanted to give you a few painting tips, that helped us.
1. When painting shelves use the smoothest roller you can buy. If you use a rougher roller you’ll get a texture on the shelves that will show up even when the paint is dry.

2. Elevate the shelf to free up the sides for easier painting, I just used a square vase.

3. To prevent your roller from drying out between coats stick it in a plastic bag. (I used a plastic newspaper wrapper). Press out all the air and wrap it around so now air can get it. It will keep the roller moist for a few hours. I actually forgot mine and left it overnight, in the morning it was still wet.

4. If your going to be using the same can of paint for a few days stick on one of these nifty paint can lids. It’s easier to remove than the lid and also has a spill proof spout. We got this one a Lowes a couple of years ago.

On to the shelf hanging.

First we cut out support wood, what’s actually going to hold up the shelves, to size. The long support on the back wall was cut to the length of the entire wall. The side supports were cut to the size of the width of the shelves. But we subtracted the amount that the back support sticks out from the wall. This way they won’t stick out from the sides of the shelves.

We marked the desk height on the wall (30″, I like to have enough space to be able to cross my legs under the table).

Held up our support wood, made sure it was level before making the pilot holes and putting in the screws. We  were going to use toggle bolts (like the guy at Home Depot recommended), but they seemed too complicated so we ended up using drywall anchors instead.

When we painted the Moroccan motifs we basically eyeballed it and sort of measured. I didn’t want to go crazy figuring out measurements and drawing grid lines all over the wall. Plus I wanted the pattern to look more natural and not so rigid. I also didn’t plan them around where the shelves were going to go, so it was a nice surprise to see that some of the motifs were intersected by the supports.

We put supports along the back of the wall as well as the sides.

Hubby came up with the brilliant idea to paint the supports the same color as what was behind it. Wow he’s really getting good at this stuff!

Now you see them…

Now you don’t.