I would like to make a few floating shelves for my living room. I have googled and google comes up with 100 different ways, I went to a local lumber store and they told me just to put a solid piece of wood up there and bolt it in, Lowes sells the kit however they are 36 bucks for a 2 foot shelf and the wood is absolute garbage.

Who has put some together here and what pointers would you recommend? I am considered just using a hollow core door cut to around 10"x36", bolting a 2x4 on the wall cut to size and then screw the hollow core door piece to the 2x4.

recessed french cleats are the cleanest look with no bolts showing, but their effectiveness depends also on the thickness of the shelf.

I doubt a hollow core door would work. They're filled with cardboard so there's no meat for you to attach it to the wall with.

I've had some of the Ikea floaters in the past. No matter how many bolts and how many studs I attached to, they never maintained a perpindicular angle to the wall with even the slightest load. Those used a formed piece of steel flat bar with two metal dowels that extended into the shelf.

I built one from scratch at my parent's place that used a ripped 2x4 lag bolted to the wall studs and then built a hollow box around it with plywood and hidden fasteners and glue. That one was sturdier, but it was only 5" wide or so and held a few smaller frames.

[This message has been edited by Aggietaco (edited 8/6/2013 12:37p).]

I am strongly considering using a french cleat similar to this setup



However I only want the shelf to be 1.5 to 2 inches thick and I dont know if I could make it work or if it would be stable enough

I like that method except for the inevitable marks on the wall as seen in the picture.

How wide and what do you plan on supporting?

a 10" hang on a 1.5-2" thick shelf is a pretty decent moment you are trying to counteract. Cleats could work if you were precise about it. The next thought would be to lag bolt a board to the wall, make a recess in your shelf that slides over it, then put a few screws through the top of the shelf into the board on the wall. You will have screws, but they would be on the top and out of sight depending on the shelf height.

I have a large window in my living room, I was to put 3 shelves on each side of the window. The shelves would need to be ~30 inches so I can at least hit 2 studs. LxDxH for the shelves would be say 30x8x2.

They would hold basic wall decorations, picture frames and the like. Definitely not to hold a set of encyclopedias or anything like that just for decoration.

The idea of putting a cleat on the wall, the just building a hollow box around is where I considered just using a hollow box door and cut it up. I questioned its strength though.

I would avoid the door, they are going to have a wood frame, but hollow in the middle. You would be better off with a solid pieces of wood, or a sandwich of wood over a hollow spot.

Depending on how deep the shelf is, your skill level and your tooling, you could bore through the front of the shelf, leaving about 1/2" to 3/4" of meat on the back side, then center bore and lag the shelf to the wall that way.

You'd need a plug to cover the bore hole on the front, but if you are painting or staining the shelf, it shouldn't matter much.

You could also bevel through the bottom at a 45 degree angle (thereabouts anyway) deep enough to recess a lag bolt head and either do the same with a wood plug or leave the bolts exposed (depending on shelf location).

With floating shelves, you aren't going to be able to put much in terms of weight by their design. Without additional support, the moment at the wall is pretty significant for what you are doing.

Personally, i find they create more problems than they solve.

But, kept narrow in depth, of some practicability.

My preference is lagstuds, set 3/4-5/8 deep into pre-drilled framing; and full shelf depth beyond. Build a truss box frame for the shelf 9ash or poplar or spruce plywood 1x2 with half-lapped joints glued-n-screwed. Bore to match the lag-studs. Bolt the frame with washers and lock-washers tight.

Finish the shelf with 1/4" veneer top & bottom, and counter-bore the front band to fit of the nuts on the bolts. Set the front band with counter-sunk screws with bung-cut plugs.

Which is why I generally wind up just getting the tempered glass curio shelves instead.

http://www.ronhazelton.com/projects/how_to_make_floating_shelves_and_install_them

Shot in the dark about how much weight do you think this setup could hold? I can knock this out in no time at all but if it cant hold 30 pounds im SOL.