Gutter Shelves

I've been tossing around different shelf ideas for the baby's room for a while now.  I'm not sure how his room is going to change as he grows, so I wasn't ready to commit to a major shelving unit.  Or worse, have the Hubs build something that I may not need/want in a few years.
What I needed was a quick, inexpensive fix.

I searched Pinterest for an answer...and it delivered.

Gutter Shelves!

There were many different links to follow.  My fav is this one.
And Beth at Sunshine on the Inside has become one of my favorite bloggers.  Not only did she have a great explanation of her installation process, but also took the time to answer the many questions that followed her post, including mine.
We tend to randomly visit the home improvement store, so on our most recent visit, I picked up one length of 10' gutter ($6 and change) and a total of six end caps ($1.50 each).  At the time I had not read through all the tutorials so I just grabbed the HUGE gutter screws offered next to all the gutter supplies.
When we got home my Hubby headed to the garage to cut the gutter into 3 pieces.  (this is definitely the hardest part of the whole project.  I'm glad he did it.)
Over the next couple of days I stared at the wall and thought, "Geez, these screws are huge, there must be a better way."  And as Beth so kindly shared there was.....drywall screws.
Which we just so happened to have in the garage. 

So it was time to get started...

After some more staring, I figured I wanted the shelves 12 inches apart.  I eye-balled the bottom shelf to the height I wanted, then measured 12 inches between each.  I drew a light pencil line to be sure it would look OK.

There are three screws in each shelf and one goes through a stud.  I put a level in the shelf while I drilled to be sure I was straight.

 The screws are at a bit of an angle.

 

That's pretty much it.  I added books.

And done!

Pretty simple.
Now my after advice..
I suppose I missed a few minor details when reading and/or shopping.  Luckily, I can return the huge gutter screws, didn't need them.  Also, my shelves are metal.  After re-reading Beth's blog, I realize that hers are vinyl.  Probably a bit more sturdy and easier to cut.  I'm not even sure that our home store offered vinyl?  Oh, well they are up, they look good and it was easy.
And an added bonus is that my 4 year old is rediscovering all his old books.  A while back, I moved all these board books out of his room to make room for his 'big boy' books.  Now he has the best of both worlds.  ;)