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| Pottery Barn Holman Shelves |
Holman Shelves from Pottery Barn are not in the Pottery Barn store. You can see a one foot or the Holman entertaining shelves examples in the stores. The reason this is because they are not an easy shelf to put up. If they had them in the store then you would see how they really don't meet up! There is a reason that they are only shown in the picture above from far away!
I chose to get them in modern white. I got 4 four foot shelves, 2 corner shelves and 6 three foot shelves. I got them 15% off but I had to pay for them to be shipped which was 10% of my order total. I paid close to $1,000 for shelves, $300 for install, plus caulk and new plaster hardware for the shelves. If I knew that my husband's friend would be available I probably could have gotten the shelves up for less! I have to say that they are well crafted but they are not designed to come apart for a more custom fit. I also have plaster walls which makes the hardware included obsolete. Do not even buy the corner shelves because they are only for a perfect 90 degree corner which no wall is! You have to ruin the corner shelf to have it go onto the wall!
I chose to get them in modern white. I got 4 four foot shelves, 2 corner shelves and 6 three foot shelves. I got them 15% off but I had to pay for them to be shipped which was 10% of my order total. I paid close to $1,000 for shelves, $300 for install, plus caulk and new plaster hardware for the shelves. If I knew that my husband's friend would be available I probably could have gotten the shelves up for less! I have to say that they are well crafted but they are not designed to come apart for a more custom fit. I also have plaster walls which makes the hardware included obsolete. Do not even buy the corner shelves because they are only for a perfect 90 degree corner which no wall is! You have to ruin the corner shelf to have it go onto the wall!
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| Jet Stream Paint from Benjamin Moore |
Against the Jet Stream paint color from Benjamin Moore they pop well! But if you want to connect them and especially the corner shelf you are not going to be able to easily get them on the wall. We had to hire my husband's friend to put up the shelves. It took four visits to get all the shelves up because it was so frustrating for the carpenter/handy man! He was talking about California closet how they basically have the same brackets to put up the shelves. The only issue is that Pottery Barn has the system based on a perfect wall (which no wall is) and the cleat system does not have a generous lip. The California Closet System according to my husband's friend is easy and is based on the same concept of the Holman Shelves. The exception where the Holman Shelving system fails is that it does not understands that the wall is not perfectly square.
The result is it was a pain to put up the shelves because the shelf could not go on the cleat system because walls bend. In order to get the shelf on the wall the bracket had to be loose but if the bracket was loose then the shelf would not go over the bracket. This caused my husband's friend to go mad and he had to leave a couple times just to get his cool back! Also it caused gaps on the walls. I was also told that the gaps happen if you try to butt up ready made shelves across a long area of the wall. This was not because my husband's friend cannot put up shelves. But the fact that the shelves were pre-finished he could not cut them without ruining them! He had to cut the corner piece otherwise the shelves would not have fit together. This is because some walls bow in and others bow out. It happens with any kind of pre-fabbed joined together shelf. You cans see this in the pictures I have posted.
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| The gaps go towards the front on the wall of the dressers |
The result is it was a pain to put up the shelves because the shelf could not go on the cleat system because walls bend. In order to get the shelf on the wall the bracket had to be loose but if the bracket was loose then the shelf would not go over the bracket. This caused my husband's friend to go mad and he had to leave a couple times just to get his cool back! Also it caused gaps on the walls. I was also told that the gaps happen if you try to butt up ready made shelves across a long area of the wall. This was not because my husband's friend cannot put up shelves. But the fact that the shelves were pre-finished he could not cut them without ruining them! He had to cut the corner piece otherwise the shelves would not have fit together. This is because some walls bow in and others bow out. It happens with any kind of pre-fabbed joined together shelf. You cans see this in the pictures I have posted.
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| A really big gap! This is because the way the wall bends! |
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| This is two shelves not quite making it together perfectly! |
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| From far away it does not looks so bad! Caulking the shelves for a seamless finish! |
If I knew that I would be able to customs shelves and that my husband's friend was available to create shelves I would have from the start. I have learned my lesson. I thought since I saw the video on pottery barn. It would have been easier and we would have already been done with the room! But now we have to caulk the shelves and then paint the caulk on the shelves!
There are also really cute ideas for non tradition shelves like the plumbing pipe shelves with reclaimed wood. Here is another example.
Here is more what I was thinking of if you wanted a floating shelf. Use plumbing supplies to put reclaimed wood or wood over the shelves.
My advice do not buy the Holman shelves from Pottery barn if you plan to do what is shown above! Get a good carpenter to install custom shelves because you cannot fit pre-finished shelves. It is apparently a joke within the carpenters/handymen about pre-fabbed shelves that they never easily go up! If you want a custom shelving look don't go pre-fabbed!
I am hoping that my bedroom will be finished before my husband goes into surgery!
