Make Hands-on Floating Shelves, step by step

We have done tons of Hands-on shelving projects in our homes, but these plain floating shelves in our bonus room are some of our go-tos. We enjoy this walkthrough because the shelves turn out modern & thin, unlike most Hands-on floating shelves that are especially chunky. Although if these are too narrow for your taste, you can see how we adapted this walkthrough for some thicker floating kitchen shelves.

You can also read about how we built in the cabinets under the shelves too, since they were another key part of building out this niche. In that post, we also cover how we planned the layout using Ikea’s online kitchen planning tool. You can also see some of the other arrangements we considered!

We ultimately chose the design above because for its simplicity. It worked perfectly in that recessed space in the room and gave us tons of storage, both functional and stylish!

Supplies For Building Hands-on Floating Shelves

We originally planned to follow this Hands-on Ikea floating shelf walkthrough we posted years ago but chose their 2″ thickness would be too chunky for this space. We had seen our friend Sarah at The Ugly Duckling House adapt that process to make skinny floating shelves and chose to give it a try instead.

Here is what you will need to make them yourself.

• 1×2? and 1×3″ pine boards (for support bracket)
• 1×2? pine boards (for facing)
• 1/2? plywood (for the top of each shelf)
• 5mm? plywood (for the underside of each shelf)
• Miter saw
• Table saw or circular saw
• Power drill/driver
• Nail gun
• Long level
• Measuring tape
• Stud finder
• Clamps (including pocket hole clamp)
• 2 1/2? structural screws
• Wood glue
• Pocket hole jig (optional)

The exact amount of wood will depend on the number and size of shelves you are installing. So be sure to take careful measurements and plan your space before you go shopping.

Step 1: Build Your Shelf Support Bracket

Like most Hands-on floating shelves, this project starts with building a hidden support bracket that is screwed into the wall studs. Most store-picked up floating shelves come with a metal bracket that the shelf slides over. For this Hands-on version, we will construct a bracket out of wood and then build the shelf directly onto it instead. As you can see below, the bracket is one long piece of wood against the wall with several support “spokes” projecting out.

The other adaptation in this build is that the bracket pieces are laid flat on their wide sides (see above) to keep the shelf as thin as possible. This does make the shelf slightly less strong than a normal bracket where the spokes stand on edge (see below), so I would not use this technique if you were planning to store heavy items like plates or plenty of books.

To build the bracket, we cut a long 1×2″ pine board for the back of each bracket and then several smaller 1×3″ pieces for the spokes. When measuring these cuts, remember to subtract the thickness of the finish shelf pieces you will be adding over the bracket. This will make more sense as you read the rest of the walkthrough, but here is the math for our spokes:

• 12.5″ desired shelf depth
• minus 0.75″ depth of the 1×2″ face piece to be brought in to the front
• minus 1.5″ width of the 1×2″ bracket piece against the wall
• equals 10.25″ length of each spoke

To attach the spokes to the back piece of the bracket, we made pocket holes one on side of each spoke using our Kreg Jig. Clamping them while drilling was a strong way to attach them strongly and in ideal alignment. This pocket hole clamp is especially helpful.

We erred on the side of having more support pegs than likely necessary – about one every 8ish inches apart, as well as one on each end. You also may want to complete the next step before attaching them.

Step 2: Find Your Studs & Drill Pilot Holes

To make these floating shelves as strong as possible, you will want to screw your bracket directly into studs behind your drywall. This is our go-to stud finder. We located and marked our studs before building the bracket so that we did not attach any spokes over these locations.

The other trick we used to make attaching everything easier was drilling some slightly recessed holes into our wood at each stud mark (the pocket hole drill bit that comes with the Kreg made this fairly straightforward to do). Since our screw would be going through the long side of the 1 x 2″, it meant we did not have to use a cumbersomely long screw to pull everything tightly against the wall for a sturdy result.

Step 3: Screw Your Shelf Bracket To The Wall

Using a level to keep our bracket straight, we then screwed through our pilot holes into the wall studs. We like to use these structural support screws for a tight fit.

It may take some oomph to get the bracket to pull tight to the wall. But this is a good sign. It means you’ve hit your stud and your floating shelves will be sturdier for doing so!

Step 4: Add Your Shelf Top

Instead of building a separate shelf box to slide over the bracket (like in other walkthroughs) we built the shelf directly onto the bracket. This helps keep it thin and light weight. The top surface is a 1/2″ thick piece of sanded plywood, but you could also use MDF.

Wood Cutting Pointer

You can cut your plywood to size at home using a table saw or circular saw, but we recommend having it cut in your home improvement store if you can. Not only is it less work for you, but it’ll assist keep your cuts more even. We had our 4x8ft plywood panel cut into 11.75″ wide strips at Home Depot, then cut them to length using our table saw at home.

We clamped the top plywood piece in place and screwed it into place from underneath using 1″ screws. This made fewer holes to cover up later!

Step 5: Add Your Shelf Bottom

For the bottoms, we glued & nailed in strips of 5mm thick plywood. We had these cut at the same time in store while the saw was still locked at the 11.75″ width. The thickness of these boards is truly essential, for reasons that you will see in a second.

It is also a good idea to use wood glue during this step since nails like this can loosen over time.

Step 6: Nail In Shelf Face Boards

The last step to constructing the shelves is gluing-and-nailing some 1 x 2″ face boards to cover the exposed front and side of each shelf. We used our miter saw to cut these, include making 45-degree mitered cuts on the corners where two boards meet.

The 1/2″ plywood top and 5mm bottom made the whole thing nearly exactly the same width as a 1 x 2″ pine board. This is why it is essential to use such a thin board on the bottom.

Step 7: Caulk, Prime, & Paint

With your floating shelves fully built, you can finish them off with whatever stain, paint, or sealer you prefer. Simply be sure to take a moment to fill your nail holes with caulk, wood filler, or spackle first. We chose to paint these white (BM Simply White) but you can see some versions of these shelves we left wood-toned too.

We enjoy the impact that all of this vertical storage has had in this otherwise sparse/hodgepodge room so far. Not only does it assist the room feel a bit more wrapped up, but it totally signaled to the kids that this is a playful and lively space for them to settle into.

So that is the story of our narrow little niche that is now serving up a ton of functional concealed & open storage for us. And it is fairly strong to have a whole new view when we walk down the hall.

More Hands-on Shelf Ideas

And if you are looking for more shelving ideas & projects, this post has 17 Hands-on shelving ideas for you to check out. From heavy-duty shelves to decorative ones like pantry shelving, there are a lot of pointers in there.

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