Sunday 8 February 2015

Fixing shelves

Finishing the basement, I have serendipitously found a solution to a long-time problem. As any dollhouse maker knows, it is next to impossible to attach shelves onto walls. If you use tack or even superglue, sooner or later the shelves will fall down. I have tried to glue thumbnails to the back of shelves:


Yes, they work. Sometimes for years. But one day they fall down, and if you have something breakable on the shelf it breaks. Or maybe your shelf is in a hardly accessible corner of your room, and you will stretch all your arm muscles trying to fix it.

As usual, I was searching for something else when I had my eureka.


I have used these hooks for all kinds of purposes, but suddenly I realised that if I just bend the hook into another loop it will be just what I need.


Now I have solid hooks that I can use to attach the shelf to the wall. Of course I could have made these double loops from a piece of wire (which I will do in the future) but I had to see the hook to come up with this very simple solution that I happily offer to all dollhouse friends.

 

If you wonder about the shelf itself, I made it many years ago for my very first house, using a bit of wooden strip and two pieces of a photo frame. The utensils come from a game, the name of which I don't know in English, but it involves picking up these tiny things from a pile one by one, without any other moving. I have saved this game since I was a child, through all moves and losses. It is made of some precious wood and still smells wonderful after fifty years.


7 comments:

  1. I love this post! Thanks for the tips you always share too!
    I read your blog often, but have never commented before :)
    Thanks for writing it.

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  2. Thank you, Julie. I very much appreciate people leaving comments.

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  3. once you have the loops then what do you do with them ie how do you attach them to the wall?

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  4. Lynn: I used thumbnails, but one could also use small nails or screws, depending on your walls. With thumbnals the shelf sits really tight to the wall

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  5. thank you! I think that thumbnails are what we call thumbtacks?

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  6. Brilliant, but I would like to know what you use on the actual wall=?

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  7. Thumbnails, thumbtacks, pushpins, drawing pins, hooks. Whatever you would use to hang a picture or anything.

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