DIY Floating Shelves

Have you ever wondered how those beautiful chunky wooden floating shelves stay suspended/floating on peoples walls? It’s actually way easier than you might think! I’ll show you how these shelves are made and hung so you can add these DIY floating shelves to your own home!

When we moved into our house a few years ago we had a lot of empty walls to fill. Like a lot. Some walls went completely untouched for probably a good year or more. In fact, I think there may still be some walls in my house that don’t have anything on them and look a little bare. Oops.

We have a sunroom that is just off of our kitchen that definitely needed a little help. I decided these floating shelves would be the perfect addition to the space. They would allow us to hang a TV or wall art above yet still be relatively streamlined and out-of-the-way.

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Supplies

• 2×4 board for wall mount/brace
• 1×10 boards for top and bottom of shelf (I used 2 per shelf)
• 1×6 board for shelf front
• Wood glue, pocket holes and screws, 1 1/4″ brad nails
• Wood stain or paint
• Total cost: $22 per shelf (I do not include costs for nails/screws/tools/stain…just wood)

Instructions

I followed this tutorial by Shanty-2-Chic. It is pretty good about explaining the process for building your own shelf. There is even a quick YouTube video for some visuals! I will explain a little more in depth below as well.

First you have to determine the dimensions you want for your shelf. I wanted mine to be pretty long and pretty deep as well. I picked up some 1″x 10″x6′ boards to use for the top and bottom of each shelf, which makes it nice and deep. The front board that I used is 1″x 6″x 6′ dimension as I didn’t want it to be as tall as it was wide (that would be huge and super bulky).

You then essentially build a box using these three boards and pocket holes. Alternatively, you could attach using wood glue and nails as well. I wanted mine to be pretty strong in case I decided to set a TV on top, so I opted for pocket holes for these joints. The side boards are attached to the top and bottom pieces first. This creates a box without a front and will allow you to hide your seams with a long front board. After that part is finished, you cut your front board to fit and cover the whole box. See below for an up close of these joints, in case the above description was confusing.

Installation

Now you have your floating shelf built! You just need to build the 2 x 4 supports to hang the shelf on the wall. The shelf basically sits on the supports almost like a slipcover. 

The wall support is built out of 2 x 4 boards. It should be about 0.25-0.5″ shorter in length then the inside of your wooden shelf box. This allows you to slide the slip cover box over the top but keep a nice snug fit. A few boards are then placed vertically on this long board to create an “E” shape. Attach these vertical boards with wood glue and pocket holes. Again, they need to be a bit shorter than the inside of your box (calculate in the width of your long horizontal board as well).

Once the wall support brace is done, it should be attached to the wall studs (use a stud finder) with several screws. The floating shelf should be stained or painted whatever finish you like and then slid over the top of the brace where it just rests on top. You could secure it to the braces using screws or nails but I didn’t and they are super strong and sturdy!

Final Product

These DIY floating shelves are an amazing beginner project that add character to any space (not to mention storage)! They are inexpensive and can be added to any room (sunroom, bathroom, kitchen, wherever!) for an instant room upgrade. I hope you decide to try this out!