DIY tips: How to mount floating shelves

Minimalist is the new craze in interior design and nothing quite captures this trend like floating shelves. The best way to declutter your living space is with a set of perfectly positioned shelving. Trying to find the best shelves for sale can be tricky and quite expensive. One way to make this easier on you is to install the shelves yourself. In the article we will explain exactly how to install a set of bookshelves and give you some great options on shelving for sale on Junk Mail.

Wood-Floating-Shelves-Modern-Living-Room-Design

Floating shelves are the same as a normal shelf except their supporting brackets sit within the unit itself so you don’t see them. This is perfect for a minimalist décor as all you see is a floating platform. The shelf also houses clutter which just adds to the minimalist look and feel. The shelf works with two symmetrical channels that house brackets. These are attached to the wall and secured tightly so the shelves can hold the desired weight. When completed, all you will have showing is the shelf extending directly out of the wall, with no supports. This is where the shelf gets its name from as it appears to be “floating” in the air.

stylish-floating-shelves

You can make the shelf out of anything, from solid wood, to plastic to a hollow-core construction. You can pretty much turn any piece of sturdy material into a shelf. From your kitchen cutting boards to an old door.

divine-floating-corner-shelf-diy-ideas

How to create and install floating shelves

We will now go thought each step of the floating shelf construction and installation process.

Shelf construction

1. First off we need to make the shelf surface. You will need two identically sized materials. For the purposes of this article we will use wood. The size of these pieces will be the size of your finished shelving unit so make sure it’s the right size.

planks-of-wood

2. Next cut out or buy two very long 2.5cm x 5cm pieces of wood. One will be cut up and used to create the hollow core of the shelf and the other will make up the shelf mounts.

DIY-Floating-Shelves-wood-pieces

3. Now cut one of your pieces of wood into three pieces. One of them need to be as long as the length of your big panels of wood and two as long as the width. These will become the outer edges of your shelf so it’s important that these pieces fit together nicely. In other words, the edges need to line up. The best looking way to do this is to cut one end of each short piece and both ends of the long pieces at 45-degree angles. This will align all three pieces and fit them together to form 90-degree angles in the corners.

wood-cut-at-45-degrees

If you don’t have the skills or the tools to make a 45 degree cut then you can simply leave the long front strip as is and cut about 2.5 cm off of both your shorter pieces. This will allow you to tuck them behind the longer one once all the shelving panels are in place.

4. We will now attach these pieces together. Put one of the large surfaces down and just hold onto one of them. Now you will take the three pieces of wood that we have cut and sized and place them on the edge of the shelf for a continuous layer. Now run some glue along the top of the pieces of wood and secure them to the shelf, you can also secure it further with nails.

wood

5. Lastly, we attach the second shelf surface. Flip the first panel, which you just secured to the shelf framework, over to expose the bottoms of the wooden strips you glued together. You need to once again run a line of wood glue along the top of each strip. Now attach the free panel on top, and nail it to each strip. This should form a wooden “sandwich” of sorts with one side still open. From here you can paint and varnish the wood as desired.

planks

Making the shelf brackets

1. Now that you have a shelf. We need a way to mount it to the wall. To do this you will need to measure the dimensions of the hollow on the inside of the shelf. Please be aware that this is not the same as the outer dimensions. The mount you are making that will fix the shelving to the wall will fit inside this hollow to achieve the floating effect.

2. Cut your second 2.5cm x 5cm piece of wood to the same length as the length of your hollow. This will become the base of your wall mount.

3. Now cut the rest of these pieces of wood into two sections that are as long as the width of your hollow (as long as it is deep) then cut 2.5 centimeters. This will jut out from the base of the wall and will have to sit flush inside the hollow. That is why we are making them a bit shorter.

floating-bracket

4. Test your wall mount with the shelf to see if it sits snuggly inside of the hollow. Now is the time to make adjustments or it will be too late. Please make sure the mount isn’t lost or gets stuck inside the hollow. This is not the easiest thing to get out.

5. Now you can attach your longer wall mount base to the two shorter pieces you have cut to sit inside the hollow. These smaller pieces should stick out from the wall. You can screw them to the edges of the base so they form an elongated “U” shape.

Installing your floating shelves

1. Your shelf is now ready to go but it still needs to be secured to the wall for it to become a shelf. Start off by drilling holes into your wall. They must be evenly spaced and should run the entire length of your shelf. Now insert your plastic wall plugs into the holes. Position your shelf mount against the wall and make sure it’s level. Now you drill bolts through the mount you have made into the wall plugs behind. Make sure you don’t forget to use washers so the fit is snug against the wall line. Depending on the size and weight of the floating shelves, you might want to get someone to help you hold the bracket against the wall while you drill.

Drill-holes

2. Lastly slide your shelf over the wall mount. It should fit like a glove. Either leave it sitting there or for further piece of mind, use some glue to permanently attach the shelf to the mount you have just installed.

Fit-shelf

3. If you want to make another floating shelf then repeat the previous steps.

You now have a brilliantly constructed and sturdy floating shelf unit. If you don’t want to make them yourself then here are some shelves for sale on Junk Mail

MagnaRack King

MagnaRack-King-Durban

Condola Shelving

Condola-Shelving-West-Rand

TCK Displays Shop Fitters

TCK-Displays-Shop-Fitters-Pretoria

Wire lockers

Wire-lockers

If DIY floating shelves installation isn’t really your thing, why not browse through a host of products that you can select from. We have great shelves for sale. From steel shelving to bookshelves for sale on www.JunkMail.co.za. Are you upgrading your home’s décor? Why not sell your used shelving for sale on Junk Mail by placing your free ad today?

Bruce Ungersbock

Bruce is an SEO guy that has his eye on the prize and traffic on his mind. A lover of good music and a connoisseur of all things awesome.

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1 Response

  1. mahomed says:

    Very interesting

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