Building floating shelves
I’m renovating a coat closet into a beautiful pantry for the OneRoomChallenge. As part of my plan, we needed three floating shelves. Floating shelves are crazy expensive. I priced it out and it would have cost $1800 for me to buy 3 high quality floating shelves and frankly kids, I have better things to do with $1800. So I sucked it up and built them and I LOVE how they came out.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the step by process. It took me ~3 days to build these and stain them. However, these weren’t 3 full days - I was working on and off on them. So all in, I think you could manage this in 1 day if you prep correctly.
My floating shelves are 58” long, 4” thick, and 8” deep. But, you can make these any size by changing the
Supplies
One thing I always get nervous about when starting a project - am I using the right tools? Am I using the proper screws? What about wood? I’ll break down everything for you with links so you can recreate easily!
Tools
Possibly a table saw or circular saw if you have to rip your boards down
Lumber
Screws & Nails
Step 1: Math
In order to figure out how many 2x4s you’ll need, you’ll need the following equation:
(Length of the shelf x # of shelves) x 2
These are the front and back of the shelves
+
((depth of shelf - 3) x # of shelves) x 6
These will be the shorter pieces that will make your frame
I always buy a few extra so if I make a mistake it doesn’t mean a trip to the hardware store.
In order to determine the space between the shelves (if you’re making more than one)
(total space height - total height of shelves) / # of shelves
Since I built these over a countertop, I calculated the total space starting at 18” above the counter (standard for shelves or cabinets over counters) to the ceiling.
Remember: 2x4s aren’t actually 2” x 4”
Step 2: Find the studs
Find and mark the studs along your wall.
Find and mark the studs along your wall
Use this time to visualize the spacing of your shelves and ensure they look good. For my design, it was important there was enough room in between to house normal pantry storage. We have ~11” in between each shelf.
Step 3: Make your cuts
Personally, I like making all of my cuts at once and then attaching them so it cuts down on the back and forth. I used my miter saw for these cuts.
Since the length of my shelves were 58”, I cut 2 2x4s per shelf to 58”, so I had 6 altogether.
I wanted the depth of my shelves to be 8” so I cut down smaller pieces to 5” as these will sit in between the two long 2x4s and hold them together. I decided on 6 of them which felt right.
Step 4: Make your pocket holes
You’ll be pre drilling pocket holes in the short pieces using your kreg jig. Pocket holes essentially let you drill screws deeper into wood, creating a more solid bond. Depending on the width of the wood you went with, you’ll have to set it up differently. I have a tutorial highlight linked on my instagram. Rule of thumb is to always drill at least 2 pocket holes, never just one.
Step 5: Attach your boards to the studs
If you take nothing else from my blog - let it be this: when attaching a board to a wall that has to be level, always screw or nail in the middle first. That way you can pivot and make sure it’s level without having to hold it up. Take it from a girl who does a lot of solo DIY. You’re welcome.
I used my 4” screws and my impact driver to attach these boards into the studs. They are not going anywhere.
Step 5: Attach the pre drilled smaller boards
I used 2” pocket hole screws for these and just used a regular drill.
If I were doing this over, I may have attached these before the longer board went into the studs, and just spaced them out accordingly.
The most important part is ensuring they are level. Seriously, level everything twice in this project.
Step 6: Attach the front board
I used 3” wood screws for this and my impact driver. This was fairly easy, but again, make sure they are level.
After this - voila! Your shelf frame is complete!
Step 7: Wrapping your shelves
I used 1/4” board for this because my shelves were already going to be fairly thick (4” thick when done). If you want thinner shelves, use something smaller than 2x4s as your base.
The cheapest option is to use plywood here. But I splurged and used maple board that was pre sanded. Depending on what you choose, the depth of your shelves and the thickness of your shelves, you may need to rip the wood down. The easiest way to do this is with a table saw, but a circular saw will also work.
You’ll need 2 sizes of wood - the top and bottom of your shelves and the front.
You’ll also have a couple options. For the most professional look, while you rip your boards down, you should miter the edges to 45 degrees so they fit together perfectly. Spoiler: I didn’t do this. I just made it so my front frame went on last and covered the entirety of the front of the shelf, including the 1/2” of wrapped wood.
They looked like this.
To attach the wrapped boards, I used my nail gun and 2” nails. You can also use wood glue - totally up to you.
This is the most exciting part, because they transform into beautiful floating shelves in front of your eyes.
Final Steps: Finishing touches!
Fill any cracks or nail holes with wood filler - but try not to over spread it if you’re staining. Even stainable wood filler is not totally stainable (I made this mistake - do better than I did).
Sand them down. I used my orbital sander here because I’m lazy but you do you.
Stain/paint/polyurethane - whatever floats your boat. We used a gorgeous custom stain as I wanted to preserve the beautiful maple.
Happy Building!
Done enough for now - we will do more sanding and more coats of stain and then polyurethane to protect.