Functional Corner Wall Art Shelves

Greetings instructables! This particular design is about two years in the making. It was not until this week that I added more touches/pieces to this functional corner wall art.

It is made of 100% wood (hacked IKEA deck pallet squares) and has LED lights aligning the tops of each layer of the display. Various things have lived within the art/shelves throughout the last two years including a fish, blown glass, and plants.

I am always on the lookout for ways to add to this ever-evolving corner piece in my home. Within this instructable I will include pictures of its development throughout the years, and instructions along the way should you be inspired or interested in creating your own similar piece! Thanks for checking it out!

MATERIALS USED:

1: 26 IKEA square deck pallets (the plastic connecting pieces along the edges have been sawed off on various sides depending on their layout/connecting scheme).
2: Hack saw
3: Dry wall screws and anchors
4: Simple black square pieces of wood/shelvs.
5: 4 LED lights
6: Drill and screwdriver
7: Two water fountains, a fish bowl/beta, blown glass, turkey feathers in a mini vise, prehistoric dry/water plant, mini bonsai tree pots, & 3 square shelf units in addition to the 3 black square shelves.

The first step was to plan out how all of the square deck pallets would align/relate to each other. I laid the design flat out on the floor and with a pencil labeled the sides of the deck pallet squares that would need to be modified. Basically they fit together like a necklace clasp and each side of the square is either the male or female side. Doing a mock layout on the floor and connecting each square made it easy to pencil in which sides of each square needed to be trimmed.

The next step was to figure out placement and to start from the corner of the wall and work out and up/down. Once the middle shelf section of the long line of squares was in place it was then easy to build out and up, connecting the squares, and making pencil marks in the wall for the dry wall studs as I went.

In order for the LED wire lights to remain hidden I had to string them alongside the process of mounting each of the cubed shelf units. The wires fit fine underneath the pallet pieces so I just had to keep placing them and then each piece of the pallet on top. I then ran them from the top most portion of each shelf section and adhered them to the bottom of each black shelf.

As I mentioned in the introduction I am sometimes inspired to add things to the design. For example the long line of squares did not always reach all the way to the ends of the couch sections & I most recently added wooden sconce candle holders to the ends of the long sections and square shelving unites to the middle of the corner section. Here are a bunch of picture showing it at various stages of design, including how I like it decorate it around the Christmas holiday season. Perhaps the coolest thing about it is that I can always change what is displayed on the shelves themselves and I will most likely continue adding to it throughout the years. Right now the shelves have blown glass, two water fountains, turkey feathers, and a plant.

The last two pictures added are how it looks today!

I had a few leftover pallet squares and in one of the pictures you can see I used them to mod my coffee table. There are a few others used in other spots in my apartment in other rooms that help keep it as a focal point throughout.

Thanks for checking out this build! Do you think a good title for it would be "functional corner wall art"?