Urban Outfitters Trinket Shelf Dupe

Another thrifted shelf flip!

I found two wooden shelves/boxes at the thrift store and turned them into shelves inspired by the UO Isobel shelf (which retails for $179), but with a spin. The UO shelf looks a little bit plastic to me and I left mine a bit more rugged.

Step 1

Create the shape of your shelves using cardboard and wood glue. For the larger shelf, I created pockets similar to the UO inspo, and for the second shelf, I created an arch. Let dry overnight.

Step 2

Cover in layers of joint compound! This is the fun part, it’s truly like icing a cake. You want to make this really thick so we have room to sand it down later. I ended up going back to the store to buy a gallon of joint compound. The best way to do this is multiple layers, letting dry for 24 hours in between. If you apply super thick all it once it is difficult for it to dry. I did 3 or 4 layers.

Step 3

Sand! I used my Dremel multi-max to electric sand the outer edges and then I went in with my Dremel rotary tool to get the details. You can also use a hand sander if you don’t have these tools. Do this until you get your desired smoothness, if you want it to look even more like the UO inspo, you can really smooth it down!

Step 4

(Optional) I didn’t do this as the cream matched my interior more, but you can always paint a starker white to match the inspo. :)

Step 5

The shelf becomes quite heavy after so many layers of joint compound. To hang, I drilled in two brackets which I used a shelf to set my project on. I also covered the back in command strips to make it really secure!