Building an open-shelf kitchen

We took out and re-purposed the (high-quality) closed wooden cabinets in our kitchen and replaced them with homemade metal brackets and white oak shelves.

We also added stick-on wallpaper we discovered at our favorite restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota.

My brothers bought me a Telescoping Handle Compact Bender from a discount tool retailer, but 1/4" steel was too thick. So I heated the metal in a mini propane forge before running to the bender. Lots of work and there were moments I regretted not just buying from Cascade Iron Co.

I bent and re-bent the brackets until they were exactly 90 degrees. Not easy. I ground the edges with the angle grinder and tried to keep them rough (rustic). Finally, I cleaned them with mineral spirits and coated them with clear poly.

I still need to plane the boards and seal them with wood sealer.