Cozy little nooks (or small rooms within rooms) are one of the many benefits of having an older home.  In older homes, rooms are typically not square, with bump outs, and alcoves, and cozy little corners that are often created by slanted or sloped ceilings from window dormers or tiny, often unused space created by a staircase.

Bedroom nook look 1

In my daughter’s room, there is a nook, due to a center chimney (behind the wall), that I knew from the get-go deserved some sort of bench or built in shelf situation.  But having just moved in, when I fixed up her room last fall, I placed a chair there and created a little reading corner.  It wasn’t long before we were changing things around and my favorite thrift store furniture piece:  the Bassett campaign dresser, ended up here.  It was a miracle, really, because it fit perfectly in this space.

Bedroom nook look 2

A few months went by, and my daughter decided she wanted to create an accent wall.  She asked me to paint the wall in that little corner black–she has a YouTube channel and likes using the space as a backdrop, but, apparently I took too long, so she did it herself.  I was so impressed with her determination, she’s so much like me, if I do say so myself.

Well to make a long story short I was in a funk the other day.  It’s a strange thing, when you have million and 1 projects that need to be done, how your mind wonders over to the project needing the least amount of work. No? Just me?  Well this is what happened to me the other day.  I walked past my daughter’s room, I probably rolled my eyes, (she’s not the neatest teenager I know-wait? is there such thing as neat teenagers?) and then decided I needed to do something.  A few months prior, she and I went to Home Depot and had some wood boards cut to install shelves in the nook.  She started collecting half dying plants on clearance, and nursing them back to health.  So far she’s been pretty successful!  She wanted a place to display all of her plants in true boho fashion.  So all of this to say that I installed the shelf to surprise her the other day.

Bedroom nook look 3

One of the easiest ways to install a shelf, is in a nook.  I used some simple scrap wood pieces for the sides, a 2×6 for the shelf and one heavy duty “L” bracket for the center support.-Easy Peasy!

How to Install a Shelf in a Nook

I pre-drilled holes in the wood supports, and screwed them to each sides of the wall.

Next, I cut my wood board down to the size of the nook- 57″ using my miter saw.

I placed the shelf board on the wood supports, and then slid the L bracket in the center behind the board.

I then secured the wood shelf by screwing 1.5″ screws into the “L” bracket. Really simple, and makes her nook look so much more cozy and interesting!  I styled it quickly, but I’ll leave the rest to her!