Hello, everyone! We continued to discover for you. In this episode, we will see Shelves made of wood that aren’t attached to the wall.
A little over a year ago, I decided to build a desk from the ground up for the home office that I have. I used plywood to construct a set of drawer cabinets, and I topped the desk with a piece of solid ash wood.
Since well over a year ago, I’ve had the intention of constructing a pair of symmetrical floating shelves, but I just can’t seem to get around to doing it.
The first step is to construct a floating shelf out of solid wood.
There are a variety of approaches to building floating shelves, each with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. To complement the custom-built ash wood desk that I already own, I envisioned mine being crafted from solid ash wood.
In addition to this, I wanted the shelves to be rather thin, as opposed to the normal thick and cumbersome approach.
I used my jointer and planer to mill the rough lumber until I had four boards with dimensions of around 1-3/8 inches in thickness, 4 inches in width, and just over 7 feet in length.
After that, I proceeded to apply glue and fasten the boards together in pairs in order to construct the shelves. After the adhesive had had enough time to set, I ran each board through the planer once more to get the desired thickness.
After that, I utilized my track saw to square up the ends of the pieces, after which I cut them to their desired length.
After sanding with 80-grit paper, then 120-grit paper, and finally 220 grit paper, I applied a finish. I’m going to use the same finish that I did on my desk, which is Osmo polyx-oil, so that everything will seem cohesive.
Simply put, I adore how simple it is to put on. My preferred method for flooding the surface is to use a plastic spreader; after that, I just wipe it off and buff it with a clean towel. It only requires two layers of protection.
Install the Floating Shelf Hardware as the Second Step.
I did a lot of research, and in the end I decided to use these support brackets for floating shelves. Why? To begin, there is a robustness. A single set of brackets has the capacity to sustain more than 100 pounds, and adding additional brackets increases that capacity by 25 pounds.
One further advantageous feature is that you can secure each bracket in its own right to the studs on your wall. And finally, they are constructed to accommodate a shelf thickness of between 1-1/8 and 1-1/4 inches, which will correspond to the depth of my desk below.
Use some painter’s tape to make a rough trace indicating the height of the shelves. You will obtain a visual reference and a sense of the overall appearance as a result of this.
Then, write a line on the tape that extends across the entire width of the shelf by making use of a laser or a 4-foot level.
Utilizing a stud finder, locate each stud that runs along that line. If you have plaster walls like I do, then the deep scan stud finder that Franklin sells is going to work wonders for you.
In order to get the most of the shelf’s storage space, you should only use one shelf bracket per wall stud.
Mark the screw holes after positioning the shelf hardware mounting plate so that it is centered on the line that runs across each stud. After that, use a drill bit measuring 1/8 inches to make pilot holes.
First, remove the tape from the mounting plates, and then use screws that are at least 2 inches long to attach them to the wall. After that, you just need to tighten the set screw and then insert the shelf pin.
Prepare the Shelf for Installation as the Third Step
After the floating shelf brackets have been attached to the wall in their entirety, the shelf can be lowered onto them and then retracted until it is flush with the wall. Adjust it so that it is positioned precisely where you want it to be attached.
After that, you should make a mark on the underside of the shelf for each side of the pin utilizing a small square.
Now that the lines have been drawn, they may be transferred onto the shelf’s back edge. Find the central point by drawing a ‘X’ between the lines.
Because it is absolutely necessary for the holes to be completely vertical, I will be utilizing a portable drill guide in order to drill the holes for the shelf hardware.
Since the drill guide will only accommodate a 7/16 bit that is rather short, the holes will need to be completed with a longer drill bit that is capable of reaching a depth of 5-1/4 inches.
A word of advice: If you have access to a corded drill, make use of it! It requires a significant investment of time and labor to bore these holes using a cordless drill.
It is not required to chisel off the back of the shelf in order to countersink the hardware, but doing so is highly advised in order to finish off the aesthetic.
Because of this, the shelf will be able to rest perfectly flush against the wall. My chiseling abilities aren’t up to pace, so using a chisel is not the approach that is recommended for doing this, but I came up with another solution to save some time (and frustration, since my chiseling skills aren’t up to par!).
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