Learn how to make this easy DIY picture ledge on a small budget. Perfect for displaying pictures in a hallway!
Our upstairs hallway is finally finished! The picture ledge shelves are one of my favorite recent projects. Simple, budget friendly, and totally customizable.
I love that these cost us under $20 to put together, and they really make a big impact in our home.
Make this easy DIY picture ledge:
The fun thing is you can change the style of these ledges to fit almost any style! We chose to stain them with the same shade we used in our bathroom:
I imagine that they could also look really sharp painted black or white, or with natural wood on a white wall. Then you could get really creative with the actual frames! They could look amazing with black and white photos and simple black frames with wide white mats…the possibilities really are endless.
If you hate the idea of DIY – here are some ones you could buy!
What you’ll need (affiliate links included – full disclosure here)
- wood (we used 1x6s and 1x3s)
- screws
- stain (this is my favorite & what we used on these ledges)
- I highly recommend using wood conditioner as well
- here’s a post all about how to stain wood like a pro – I’ve been doing it wrong for years!
The building process is VERY simple. I promise you can make these confidently even with zero DIY expertise.
We actually used the exact same tutorial as we did for these shelves in our kitchen area. We just made them shorter to fit this smaller wall, and put three on the wall instead of two.
Here’s a picture of the previous shelves we built (I didn’t take a picture like this for these shelves):
NOTE: we changed this a little bit for these shelves! We used a 1×3 on the bottom and we actually put another 1×3 on the OUTSIDE of the bottom piece of wood instead. You can see what I mean by looking at this picture:
I wasn’t sure whether to do two shelves or three on this wall. I asked my sweet Instagram friends for their opinions and it was pretty split!
What really helped me was using painters tape to mark the wall before we made a decision. I loved how the three shelves filled the space so much better than the two, and that trick really helped me to make up my mind.
We screwed our shelves directly into the wall (make sure you go into a stud if you do this). They’re very securely on the wall and we LOVE how they look!
Can you believe the transformation this hallway has gone through??
If you missed our EASY hack for how we replicated our old house molding – come see the tutorial by clicking here.
Curious about our wall color? Come see our whole house color scheme in this post!
Shop the look:
See LOTS of options/variations of where to buy our schoolhouse pendant light by clicking here.
If you liked this tutorial, please share with others and save for later by pinning here!
Lisa says
So glad this popped up on my feed! We are building my Momma a small house at our house and we have been going through her old house and mostly taking pictures out of old frames and keeping some of the nicely framed ones. Some are wood (different shades) some are pewter some are gold. I really didn’t know what to do with this assortment because I couldn’t imagine how to display them in her new small home. INTIL NOW! This is perfect!
Christina says
yes!! So glad to hear this! Send me a picture when you’re done – I’d love to see it!
Heidi says
Love this look! What paint color do you have behind the picture frame ledges?
Christina says
Revere Pewter 🙂
Crystal says
Hi there,
Super cute ledge shelves! When fixing the 1×3 to the outside of the bottom 1×3, where do you insert the screw? Are you simply screwing (nailing?) in from the front? Thank you!
Christina says
yes we did it from the front! You can cover up with stainable wood filled or leave it for a more rustic look 🙂
Nicole says
I came across your blog and your beautiful home recently. We are in the process of making shelves like yours- thanks for the inspiration! Any chance you could tell me how much space you left between each shelf? Your spacing looks perfect. Thanks!
Christina says
I’m sorry I don’t remember – and we’re not in this house anymore! Just put one of your tallest picture frames up with the wood and make it a little taller than your tallest picture frames…if that makes sense 😉
Ivory says
Wow, amazingly gorgeous. You nailed this project. I got to put this on my list of things to diy. Thanks for sharing. Happy 2022