TV UNIT - SIDE & TOP SHELVES

Sniff, sniff. Cough, cough. Splutter, snot gobble.

A day out in London last week and it appears that an unseen viral menace hitched a ride on the tardy train back to Chi. Funny but whenever we visit the Big Smoke we always appear to return full of germs. I blame TFL for not adequately sanitising their trains after a day of snotty fingers rubbed across doors and hand grab bars. The hardy Londoner doesn’t stay in to recouperate, preferring instead to share the ‘lurge’ with the world at large.

Mind the snotty gap

Not letting a few sniffs or sneezes deter us from our DIY. Bring on the Vics vapour rub or Lemsip, it’s kill or cure!

Now where did we get to? Right. Shaped shelf fitted so time to move on up. Let’s finish those side shelves then get cracking with the top section.

To recap, there are side shelves with no end pieces and this is where we’ll begin.

Grab a stained vertical upright and place it alongside the fishbone shelf on the side wall. This vertical piece needs to be carefully screwed into position, keeping the shelf level and at the same time ensuring that the front edges are neatly aligned.

How to get level shelves

We’ve done this using the tried and tested Heath Robinson method, propping up the shelf with a pile of DVDs until the spirit level bubble is centred.

Bodge or brilliance?

One person then holds the vertical panel and shelf in place whilst the other screws them together.

Is that bubble in the middle?

Starting from the bottom shelf, work your way slowly up the fishbone using the above method to ensure your shelves are level and aligned.

Left side shelf completed

Repeat on the other side. No DVDs used this time as there’s only one high top shelf. It’s a case of hold and hope.

You should now have something that looks like the photo below:

Both sides completed

Grab the stained top shelf piece and drop this into position to sit on the 2 stained vertical panels. Screw the top shelf into the top of the vertical panels from above. In this way, the screws remain unseen.

Position top shelf and screw into long verticals

Remember to feed your speaker cables up along each corner join before you push the whole unit back towards the wall.

Everything should now be ready for the top panel, top verticals and pelmet but more about that after a little lie down.  Anyone got a tissue I could wipe the laptop screen with?