"Floating Shelves"- method critique

[Henry W]

Is the other side of the wall accessible? Is the other side of the wall finished? If it is sheetrock pop some holes in it and screw in the floating shelf(yes) from the back. Patch some sheetrock.

Gene - For me, yes other side is finished - and this is drywall. I was hoping to do this without patching or painting.

I think I have my plan - I am mounting 6-8' bolts (that I have from old project) into a 1x1.5" cleat. Holes to be drilled in the shelf for the bolts, and the cleat to be screwed onto the wall. Pretty much my original plan (as pictured in the original post above), except I am adding the bolts as support. I may or may not mount these individual pieces up against the adjoining wall.

 

[JimD]

I've done floating shelves in a storage room off my garage and on the back wall of my garage. In both cases, I built a frame of 3/4 material about 1.5 inches tall, might have been 1.75 inches, that is glued and screwed together with the pieces projecting from the wall about a foot apart. The back piece is screwed to the studs. Then a sleeve with a thin plywood top and bottom and a front piece of solid wood is slid over the frame and held in place with a few 18 gauge brad nails. I've mostly used 5mm plywood for the top and bottom but I tried 3mm on the bottom of the ones in the garage but I think it's too flimsy. 5mm works fine and will support plenty of weight. You could do the same thing for nicer shelves for inside but you'd need to source some 1/4 or a little less plywood for the top and bottom.

 

[Gotcha6]

If the end of each board is in contact with the adjoining wall,(as you stated) then to me this would be an "L" shape.
The back of the shelf is vertical part of the L and the end of the shelf touching the adjacent wall is the short leg of the L. View attachment 227412

If you aren't joining them in the corners, i.e. the intersecting wall shelves are on a different plane, I would screw a dadoed or dovetailed cleat to the end wall contact point and go with the lag screws in the long face. In this way, the shelf gets more reinforcement and mounting the shelf only has to address one plane of contact.
I'm leery of making shelves hang on drywall fasteners, especially where jumping cats are involved. To make an accurate template for locating holes, rip a piece of scrap plywood and attach it to the back of the shelf before you drill the holes in the shelf and you have a perfect template for spotting the holes on the wall, or locate the studs on the wall and do it the other way round. It's hard to get floating shelf pins accurate any other way. HTH.

 

[Willemjm]

Is the other side of the wall accessible? Is the other side of the wall finished? If it is sheetrock pop some holes in it and screw in the floating shelf(yes) from the back. Patch some sheetrock.

Nope. Just screwed to the studs on one side 2 1/2” # 8 screws.

 

[HMH]

Many ways of doing those, we use a Maple frame, with a sleeve which slides over the frame. The frame screws into the studs behind the drywall, using 2 1/2” cabinet screws.

Sometimes we do solid wood, build the slab, drill 3/4” holes into the long side of the slab, rip 2” off the long side drilled, glue 3/4” dowels into the offcut piece, screw it into the sluds, slide the slab onto the dowels and secure with screws underneath.

View attachment 227430

These below are solid Cherry mixed with Maple

View attachment 227431

I really like the dowel idea - even better than my domino idea as the dowels can extend deeper into the “shelf” portion for a little extra structure. Honestly, the only downside I see here is just the mild additional expense of having to by at least S2S stock to start w/ 1 flat face, (I only have an 8” jointer, and I doubt a shelf project will be the one that kicks me up to a 12”, ha).

 

[Willemjm]

I really like the dowel idea - even better than my domino idea as the dowels can extend deeper into the “shelf” portion for a little extra structure. Honestly, the only downside I see here is just the mild additional expense of having to by at least S2S stock to start w/ 1 flat face, (I only have an 8” jointer, and I doubt a shelf project will be the one that kicks me up to a 12”, ha).

I also only have an 8" jointer. I make sure all my boards are square and true before glue-up. My clamping system then gets those perfectly flat when glued up, just light finishing with an RO.

Generally, I do not use stock over 8" wide, due to possible cupping with wood movement through the seasons. If I get stock wider than 8", I rip it down. If I get a good auction buy, maybe one day I will upgrade to a 12" jointer, but I still do not like the idea of using boards which are too wide, if they are flat sawn.

 

[Robinsage0279]

Many ways of doing those, we use a Maple frame, with a sleeve which slides over the frame. The frame screws into the studs behind the drywall, using 2 1/2” cabinet screws.

Sometimes we do solid wood, build the slab, drill 3/4” holes into the long side of the slab, rip 2” off the long side drilled, glue 3/4” dowels into the offcut piece, screw it into the sluds, slide the slab onto the dowels and secure with screws underneath.

View attachment 227430

These below are solid Cherry mixed with Maple

View attachment 227431

I am intrigued by the dowel method. With a 2” piece for holding the dowels, what is a guess of the weight the shelf will hold? Any guess as to what the difference would be for a 1.5” piece would be? Both assuming that the piece is anchored in studs, not just drywall. I’ve been using the box over frame method but need some thinner shelves and this might get me there. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Willemjm]

I am intrigued by the dowel method. With a 2” piece for holding the dowels, what is a guess of the weight the shelf will hold? Any guess as to what the difference would be for a 1.5” piece would be? Both assuming that the piece is anchored in studs, not just drywall. I’ve been using the box over frame method but need some thinner shelves and this might get me there. Thanks for the suggestion!

The ones in the picture were fine as far as being sturdy 1 3/4” thick. Trick is to screw close to top and bottom of the piece being secured to get adequate leverage. I can’t give you a number, but if you search YouTube, there is a guy sitting on his shelf.

On the frame and sleeve, we have done some tests with excellent results. I posted some numbers, but they were challenged. Next time we will do a video, should we test again.

 

[Willemjm]

Here is a video.

Confession: Generally, pine is not allowed in my shop. I use a drill press with a machine vice, not a hand dril. Also, I use tiny screws below, into the dowels, so the shelves are fixed. I disagree with how he screws into the studs. We want two screws, one as close to the top of the shelf retainer and one as close as possible to the bottom. That will allow more load on the shelf. Not sure where the $100 comes from, but my 8/4 Maple is a lot cheaper than that wholesale.

The thicker the shelf, the more weight it will carry.

 

[Jim Wallace]

I used these brackets: Floating Shelf Bracket - Available in 10

Worked great. Quite strong.

 

[Willemjm]

I used these brackets: Floating Shelf Bracket - Available in 10

Worked great. Quite strong.

The strength of that is directly proportional to the vertical width of the bracket. The wider it is, the more weight on the shelf, before the drywall is crushed. Also why screws in the center vertical width is not a good idea. Not sure how wide that is, but say it is 1.5", with a screws in the middle, it means load on the shelf can only resist the strength of 3/4" drywall from the screw center to the bottom of the bracket. Probably fine for light ornaments, or a few books.

If those are not secured with drywall directly behind the bracket, they should work great.

We don't like going below 2 1/2" thickness on the frame/sleeve type of floating shelf and if we go past 12" deep, we go 3" thick. On the solid shelves, we try to get as close as we can to 2" using 8/4 stock.