Tweakity-tweak-tweak — that was the tiny course correction that happened in our kitchen last night. We’d recently installed a series of open shelves with brackets, and after taping, measuring, photoshopping mock-ups, and drilling through tile to mount them, we were confident about the spacing. We chose the placement because:
- It lined up with the wall studs
- Keeping equal distances on each side of the hood felt like it would balance an otherwise asymmetric wall
But as the kitchen evolved — new lighting, a new dishwasher, fresh art, and new floors — something about the left side just started to look crowded. At first it was only noticeable in photos, then in real life: eight brackets on that side felt like too many.
Several readers had commented that six brackets would have looked better, and after living with the shelves a while our eyes agreed. It’s one of those design moments where you’re initially excited and committed, then later you see the simpler, better option. The good news: most home projects can evolve. We’ve redecorated rooms and repainted many times in our previous house, so tweaking layouts is part of the process. If at first you don’t get it perfect, you can usually fix it later.
After removing two brackets, the arrangement felt cleaner. The new center bracket aligns nicely with the counter line, so the shelves still read as intentional and balanced. (Note: the middle bracket is centered between the remaining ones — any perceived shift is just the camera angle.)
So how did we undo the eight-bracket setup after we had drilled through tile? The process was straightforward and inexpensive.
First, we cleared the shelves. The small black tabs you see are removable 3M Velcro that keep a framed print in place.
Next we unscrewed the shelves from the brackets and lifted them off the wall screws. Each bracket sat on two screws, which you can see in the photo — they look like colons because of the pair.
We measured and drilled new holes for the middle bracket using a tile drill bit, then installed heavy-duty anchors since those new screws didn’t hit studs. The outer brackets still use studs, and because the anchors are strong, each shelf is well supported.
To remove the old drilled tiles, I chiseled them out using a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer. It was quick — about five minutes — and involved tapping the screwdriver along the grout to create a chisel effect, then prying the tile free.
After a few taps around each tile they popped out. In most places one screw hole was in the tile and the other was in the grout, which meant we only needed to replace the tiles where the hole was through the tile itself.
I set new tiles in place with tile adhesive, then mixed a small batch of grout to fill the gaps around them. The repair blended in once the grout dried and was nearly impossible to spot.
Ta-da — it’s as if those extra two brackets were never there. The grout was still drying in these photos, but once it set the repair disappeared into the wall, and this whole tweak cost us nothing in materials since we used leftover tile and grout.
Here’s a side-angle that shows the cleaner look, and a full side view that I love — I keep finding myself glancing at it when I walk by.
The takeaway: even with careful planning, taping, measuring, and mock-ups, you may tweak your design after living with it for a while. That’s the beauty of DIY — most home improvements can be adjusted and improved over time. Every project has a few lives, and each revision brings you closer to the right look.
Have you ever redone a project after living with it for a bit? Did you ever chisel out tiles to fix a mistake? For me, knocking out a tile with a hammer and screwdriver turned out to be oddly satisfying — and effective.