Exposed shelf brackets: help / suggestions, please

Hello Everybody.

I am an admitted tiki amateur finishing up phase two of a home bar renovation. The small wet bar came with the house and it occupies an odd place just off the family room. It doubles as the corridor to our laundry room and garage. It makes a nice little bar, but as this space must remain a clear thoroughfare, I can't really build it out to any degree. In other words, the decor must all stick pretty flatly to the walls and I have done my best to give the space some dimension by building little arrangements on shallow shelves.

I am dissatisfied with the shelf brackets I have found available on-line and hoping someone can suggest a source or DIY plans for bamboo and/or other tiki-tropical shelf supports. One of my shelves is a weathered, whitewashed board with metal brackets I hoped would suggest salvage from a Victorian pineapple plantation house. They just look like they came from the hardware store (which, of course, they did).

The other brackets are special-order wrought iron from Etsy that are more convincing as shipwreck salvage but still not thoroughly satisfying. They'll look better when I black out the screw heads.

Oceanic Arts sells great rattan hangers that I have purchased and put to some use and several sources provide excellent trim. Where have you all found some luck with good tropical / tiki hardware, though: Shelf brackets, door knobs, door stops, light switch plates, etc.?

Amazon has some interesting stuff:

[Nice bamboo wall plate for a light switch

](https://amzn.to/2H90NKo)

[Nice bamboo wall plate for electric outlet

](https://amzn.to/2H6tPKq)

[Solid bamboo rail

](https://amzn.to/2GQbSC0)

Bamboo door knob

You might torch those white brackets to burn off some or all of the white paint (after you take them from the wall :lol: ) There are pickling solution recipes on the web to accelerate rusting. Propane canister torches are available fairly cheap at Lowe's, Walmart, Harbor Freight, etc - plus they come in handy for making creme brule or seared salmon nigiri :D

you could cover them with tapa cloth.
Or cut a piece of Hawaiian fabric into a square,
fold it in half at the corners to make a triangle large enough to cover the triangle shaped brackets.
Or hang a grass skirt from the shelf above to hide them

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2018-04-03 17:38 ]

Too late now, but for high shelves you can mount the brackets on top of the shelf where they can't be seen.

Thank you for the tips. I like the wicker doorknob and will try wrapping the brackets in tapa cloth or some soft burlap. Cheers.

Home Depot has an assortment of wood brackets that you can stain or paint. Here are brackets I bought from Home Depot and just used a board for the shelf to hold a wooden figure.

[ Edited by: MaukaHale 2018-04-05 06:45 ]

Put a new skin on an Ikea floating shelf.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50282182/

try these

http://www.etsy.com/shop/forwardbackvintage

Love those shelves! He does great work and the prices seem reasonable. Thanks

OP let's see if I can describe this. I could see taking two pieces of wood, one on each side the bracket sandwiching the bracket between them, add a "trim" piece along their exposed edge (result of the bracket width) and stain them brown along with the shelf piece. Embellish with carved out designs using a router maybe.

Suppose you could also do a more temporary similar solution using pink foamboard pieces, adhesive, heated foam cutter tool, latex primer and latex paint. Carve out the inner section of the side panels so you could fit the bracket inside for a more compact look. You could do the same using wood if you used a router.

[ Edited by: Polly_Nesia 2018-04-11 09:32 ]