Cork Alphabet Shelf

This adorable cork alphabet shelf is perfect for a nursery or little one’s room and it’s so easy to make!

Can we just get the pun out of the way now so I can apologize? I really really wanted to call this a “Shelfabet”. But I refrained. You’re welcome. Now we can move on!

I like having a little shelf in a nursery above the changing table for stashing things like diaper creme and lotion, you know, the things you use really frequently–so you’re not always rummaging around or opening and closing a drawer to get them but also then baby can’t reach them. It just makes life easier. In O’s nursery we had an Ikea Lack shelf but it was so deep that we’d sometimes bump our own heads on it when bending over. So I wasn’t sure what I wanted to put in the new baby’s room. And then, when I was cleaning out my office I found this old shelf. Actually it’s more of a picture ledge I guess. There’s a long (boring) story attached to where I acquired this one but the short version is, I inherited it with my very first apartment when I was in college. My friends liked to call that place “the world’s smallest apartment” because it seriously was. It was a teeny tiny studio. Like you could sit on the twin bed and reach over and touch the opposite wall tiny. And it cost $700 a month. In 2001. Oh Chicago, I love you! Anyway, I inherited this shelf. I’ve both used it and had it in storage but I never brought myself to get rid of it. But you know f-r-e-e is my favorite word! Here’s how I made it adorable for the nursery…

DIY Cork Alphabet Shelf (or Shelfabet–I can’t stop!)

Picture Ledge or shelf

Small cork letters (I bought mine a while ago in the dollar section at Michaels, I couldn’t find the exact same thing, but these would be also be cute!)

Acrylic craft paint

Hot glue gun

1. First I cleaned my shelf and then painted it white with acrylic craft paint. My shelf was very matte and didn’t require sanding first but if yours has any sort of finish, give it a light sanding so the paint sticks better. If you’re using the wooden letters I suggest as an alternative above, you could paint those also. They’d be so cute in colors to match the rest of the nursery! Protective coat on the shelf is optional. 2. I arranged the letters on the shelf to see how I wanted to attach them. Mine didn’t quite fit all the way across so I arranged them a bunch of different ways and settled on putting a few letters in the front. See what you like.

3. Then, using hot glue, attach the letters securely to the shelf (and to each other if they’re touching). Like I said, you can arrange them any way you want, but the reason I put them mostly on the back edge of the shelf instead of the front is that I figured, if they were on the front, they’d get bumped and touched a lot more as we used the shelf and would be much more likely to come off. 4. I left the last few letters off the front edge to be sure I’d be able to access the screw to attach the shelf to the wall. Gave myself a big pat on the back for thinking ahead enough to realize that! ha! Once the shelf was installed in the room, I glued them on.

And that’s it, make sure you install it high enough that once baby can sit up they still won’t be able to reach or bump their head on it!

If you liked this, you may also like some of my other posts…

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Cassie May

Craft and Knitwear Designer at Little Red Window Design

Welcome to Little Red Window! I’m Cassie, a professional craft and knitwear designer working in the field for more than 10 years. I have a degree in Art History from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Architecture and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I've designed more than 300 separate knitting patterns, hundreds of craft projects, and I love to bring joy to your crafts and knitting with well-designed, easy to understand tutorials and patterns.

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