Despite the fact that we started the dining room remodel in August, we are still working on little details here and there. The latest detail to be added is our set of stemware shelves. This picture is from when we first bought the house. If you look over to the left of the cupboards, between the kitchen and dining room, you can see the white shelves that are kind of inset in the wall. These were wooden and so when I repainted the trim in the dining room I decided to repaint the shelves, too. Except, the more that I looked at it the more I thought that frosted glass shelves would look great to accent the frosted glass shades of the light fixtures right next to them.

I must have forgotten to tell Jay about the little detail of the frosted glass because when he ordered the shelves they were just plain glass. And they were not cheap! I still wanted the frosted look so we took the do-it-yourself kit (that I had purchased when I frosted the window that was in the shower of my previous house) and frosted them.

It’s a fairly easy process, once you figure out just how you want to do it. At first we tried wrapping the covering around the glass so that it was on both sides, but that didn’t work. Finally Jay decided that it would work best if we just put the wrapping on one side of the glass. It turns out that was a good idea and I like the look of it.

Once we had covered one side of the glass we put them off to the side so that they could dry. You have to use a solution to keep the adhesive wet while you move the covering around and get the air bubbles out. Once the solution dries, though, the wrap clings nicely to the glass.

Jay had to work Saturday morning, so I was surprised when I got home from running errands and found him preparing to install the glass shelves. He had to make all new brackets for the shelves to sit on and then he had to line them up better. The old ones were all askew and off-kilter. Seriously, do NOT let an engineer anywhere near a tool box. The engineer who built our addition did a HORRIBLE job!

I was barely in the door Saturday morning when Jay was talking about using purple as an accent color on the back wall behind the shelves. Now, our dining room is beige and when we redo our kitchen I want to paint it a nice, springy green. I had never once even considered using purple anywhere in my color scheme.

I was okay with using it as a light accent color, but I was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get the paint just right and that I would end up really disliking it. I told Jay that I would be okay if he used some purple LEDs and sort of back-lit it. Jay said that he couldn’t do that, etc. I left him to figure it out because I had other things that I needed to do. As I was sorting piano music he called me into the kitchen.

He had managed to find a way to do it! Now, in my head it was a LOT softer and not as purple as you see in this picture. Jay was a bit disappointed that I didn’t jump up and down with excitement. He should know by now that’s not how I work! lol

I liked the effect, but I still wanted it softer. I asked if he could put a dimmer on it so that we could turn the intensity down if we wanted. He worked all afternoon on it, but finally managed to get it figured out. I am waiting for the final install to happen, but it’s hooked up temporarily so that we can get the look that we were trying to achieve.

So here are the shelves, installed as I wanted. Just looking at them like this makes me happy. I think that it gives them just a little bit of a classier feel than the wooden shelves that they sat on before.

And look at how beautifully the frosted shelves turned out! I put the covered side down so that the stemware is sitting on the actual glass and you are seeing the frosted part through it.

And this is how it looks at night when the LEDs are on. It really does have a neat effect. I’m sure that most people wouldn’t like it, but I think that it’s interesting. The stemware is really set off with the light, too. There’s still a little more tweaking to be done, but this is how the finished product will look. Isn’t it neat?