Flintstones Inspired Carved Rock Shelf

This is a tribute to my favourite childhood cartoon- The Flintstones. It's a Stone Age themed bookshelf made to look like a carved rock. I don't have any tchotchkes worth displaying, but I have a lot of perfume bottles, so this shelf was made specifically for all my bottles.

1. wall filler/spackle
2. wood glue
3. expanding foam
4. cheap wall paint brush
5. rubber gloves
6. newspapers or plastic sheet for protection
7. cardboard - two large sheets and enough cardboard offcuts to make several small boxes
8. paper-like tape like washi tape or masking tape
9. glue gun
10. white paint - I used leftover wall paint I had laying around
11. sharp craft knife, scissors, ruler

I got all my perfume bottles I wanted to show off and I started making individual boxes for each bottle. Using just scissors and some tape. Some boxes were rounded, some with sharp corners, the most important thing was to make sure boxes weren't too snug.There needs to be some space between the bottles and boxes, because spackle will be added later.

I placed all my boxes on top of a large sheet of cardboard and arranged them tightly. I drew an outline of the shelf and an outline of each individual box. I cut the shape out of the cardboard sheet and then I cut another, identical one- this one for the back of the shelf.

I used a very sharp craft knife to carefully cut out the box outlines.

I hot-glued the boxes to the front of the shelf. Had to use a lot of glue to seal them tightly.

This is what it's meant to look like afterwards.

My biggest perfume box was 6cm deep. Keeping it in mind, I cut a long, 8cm wide piece of cardboard and rolled it up to loosen the fibers. I glued that piece to the sides of the shelf. It took a while, because I could only glue a small piece at the time and then I had to hold it steady while the glue cooled down.

With the front and sides secured I could move to the back and the infill. I used a small can of expanding foam to fill the hollow spaces inside the shelf. Before the foam had a chance to escape, I covered the back with a cardboard backing I cut out earlier. I also secured it with some glue and left it for an hour for the foam to solidify.

Afterwards I grabbed my sharp craft knife and went around the whole shelf to cut off any hot glue residue, drips and any foam that escaped the insides.

I used undiluted wood glue and a cheap paint brush to cover the whole shelf in one layer of glue. Wood glue creates a thin, waterproof film and it prevents cardboard from soaking in moisture. This has to dry completely.

I used a spatula and my own, gloved hands to spread thick spackle around to cover big gaps. When that layer was set, I mixed my spackle with a diluted wood glue ( 1 part wood glue + 1 part water) until it had a brushable consistency and I was able to apply it with a brush. Each layer dries in 1-3 hours.

Overall I applied 3 more thin layers of spackle until I was satisfied with the shape of the shelf. The colour came out off-white, so I painted with pure white wall paint. There is a possibility to sand the shelf to smooth the rough texture, but I opted for a rough, unfinished look.