This gallery rail really dresses up any shelf! I wanted to wrap my shelf with railing on all the exposed sides. Because my shelf is against a wall on one side, that meant I’d be wrapping the front side and the left side. If your shelf is open on both sides, you can wrap all three sides, and if your self is close in on both sides, you can just go across the front.
The rods come in 36″ and 18″ length, so you want to keep this in mind with your design. I have a 36″ shelf here, but instead of using a 36″ rod, I opted for several 18″ rods. It saved me money on shipping, but I did need to make sure that my seam landed on a post. I designed this so that I would have a post about every 9″, this would cover my seams and also look balanced as it wrapped around the sides because my shelf depth was 10″.
I went with a double rail, so I needed twice as many rods, but the site I bought this from has options for single rails too. All of this came in around $95 for the double design and would have cost around $60 for the single.
There are three types of posts to order: end posts, corner posts, and center posts. Every scenario is going to need two end posts. This is the ultimate ending of your railing, what that be the edge of the front or it wraps to the back. Wherever your design ends needs an end post. This post has holes on one side to receive the brass rod. If you utilized one or both front corners to wrap your railing around, you’ll need that many corner posts. Lastly the center posts will fill in the blanks. You don’t want to span more than 12″ without a post. My design used 2 end posts, 1 corner post, 3 center posts and 5 of the 18″ rods.
I started by marking my holes. I used a chalk pen just so I could see it better and wash it up easily. I set the marks 1/2″ from the edge on all sides and marked all the corners. Once the corners were marked I split the front into 4 equal sections. It ended up being a little less than 9″ apart for post, but not to worry, you can trim down your brass rods with a hacksaw, which I had to do here.
I drilled holes through my marks, the same size as my screws. Then I flipped the shelf and drilled a large hole right on top of the first hole, but only about half way through. This larger hole should be slightly larger than your screw head to allow it to sink and hide into the shelf. You could skip the countersinking part, but your screws will be visible.
I then trimmed my rods to size and cut one of them in half for my side. A back and forth motion with a hacksaw will notch the brass and you can break it at the notch when you’re about halfway through. I use a miter box to keep my rod and saw perpendicular to one another. I started with my left end post and worked my way around, adding the rails in before my next post. When I got to the center posts, I slid those on, somewhat in place, attached my end post, and then went back and secured those center posts into the pre-drilled holes
These shelves were made to look like marble, but they are made from mdd and I could drill through them to install this railing. If you can’t drill through your self, you could install this with a construction adhesive.
I finished this space with a towel bar, s hooks, a popcorn scoop, spoons, canisters, etc. You can shop the styled photo here!
You can check out a video of this install on my instagram @emilymadehome