Adding Ikea Floating Shelves In The Bedroom

For over a decade, one of our renovating mantras has been “the middle makes no sense.” In short, do not fret if your house is mid-reno, not fully furnished, or otherwise in limbo. Take your time, try something out, and simply course correct as you go. See what you like and what you use. Live with something for a little while (or a long while). Take the expectation of having a wrapped up ideal house right away and throw it in the trash (it consistently takes us years to get to that point!). Simply keep letting spaces evolve in ways that work for your family and make you glad. And eventually, you are quite likely to end up with something you enjoy and find extremely useful.

This particular corner of our bedroom has been a ideal example of that mantra… especially because it got quite weird there in the middle (wait for it).

Note: If you are looking for more floating shelf projects and ideas, this post has 16 Hands-on shelving ideas for you. From pantry shelving to heavy-duty shed storage shelves, there are tons of pointers & walkthroughs for you.

Ok, let us rewind because BOY has this corner come a long way. This is what it looked like 3 years ago, right after we moved in. This furniture arrangement can best be described as “working with what you have.” At that time, we had future plans to build a closet there (which you can see rendered in this post), but we later ended up putting a much larger closet system elsewhere instead). Once again, it is a good demonstration of living with an idea for a while and course-correcting as you go.

To better orient you, the left side of the photo above is the same wall that the fireplace is on in our bedroom. See the gray dresser cropped out on the right below? That is the same one that is pictured above.

It is a funny corner to work with for a couple of reasons. The first one is that the walls do not meet at a right angle (which you will see more clearly later in this post). It is a quite clearly pronounced acute angle. Nothing close to 90 degrees (or 98 Degrees, RIP). The second factor is that it is plainly visible from our kitchen / sitting area. It consistently felt funny that guests were looking directly into our bedroom, so we tried to make it look as un-bedroom-like as possible. Here is that view right after moving:

You may also know this corner as the spot we later chose would work well as a second bathroom if we ever decide that we need one of those. We have put that plan on hold (perhaps forever – more on that here) but for a while that perhaps-in-the-future thought scared us away from doing anything better with that corner for fear of “it’ll all change later when and if it is a bathroom so why bother.” For example, when we installed these built-ins around our fireplace, we stopped short of going fully wall-to-wall on the right side, assuming we’d eventually add a wall there and that is where the future bathroom would live.

So for a while now, this corner has looked like this. The dresser itself looks fairly pleasant if we stand close sufficient to only see that from the doorway…

… but in the context of the whole room, this little “moment” did not truly make much sense.

Even if you scooted a little to the right of that doorway from the sitting area, the dresser looked kinda weird simply sitting next to that built-in cabinet.

Was this the end of the world? Nope! We lived with it like that for a good year or so. And it eventually became clear that we were “holding” this corner for a potential future bathroom plan that was becoming less probable by the day… so that spurred us into thinking a little more about what we in fact hoped from that corner in this current moment instead of waiting for the far off future to gain something more useful from that spot.

It felt strong to consider some other, more permanent solutions for this space. Nothing that could not be undone in a literal day should we decide that we suddenly want that bathroom in 2029 or something (cabinets + shelves are hardly a permanent installation). This brought us to a solution that we enjoy because (1) it looks good / non-bedroomy from the kitchen and (2) it adds tons of functional storage (both concealed and open).

There are fairly much three main elements to the change:

1. We extended the Ikea Besta cabinets so they are truly wall-to-wall
2. We built them in with trim & countertops (so worth the effort for that custom look)
3. We brought in 3 long floating Ikea Lack shelves above them

We considered a few other things (like a more elaborate built-in hutch with glass on top for example) but in the end, we enjoy the clean and modern look of this corner now. It also feels like it’ll serve us for a quite long time (if you are taking bets, I’d wager that we will never add a bathroom).

We truly lucked out that Ikea’s stock Besta sizes fit perfectly along this wall. It felt like a small miracle since, as you can see below, the walls meet at that pinched non-90-degree angle. Since they fit so well, we were instantly able to earn another 70″ of storage by bringing in three more cabinets (!!), and simply repeated the same steps we used before to make the Besta cabinets look built-In (add baseboard, fill gaps, top with butcher block).

If you scroll up a picture you can see how extending the counter to fill in that weird pinched corner instantly made that area look a lot less “off” (and you can see more of that corner in the video Sherry recorded for you later in the post). Countertops that go wall to wall can cover a plethora of weird wall/corner issues! And do not worry, that end cabinet still opens plenty wide sufficient to get things in and out.

In fact, that one cabinet that you see above stores EVERYTHING that had previously been in the blue inlay dresser – which means we earned two bonus cabinets worth of space in here with this move… not to mention the vertical storage we gained with the three shelves above them!

Speaking of those shelves, we took a highly scientific approach to figuring out what to do above our freshly installed cabinets/counter. We purchased 3 of these 72″ floating shelves, but were not immediately married to hanging all three. Thanks to a combination of holding stuff up, putting painter’s tape on the wall, and drawing on photos in Instagram (again, highly scientific) we chose to go for all 3.

Three felt like it filled the space well, without making each shelf too cramped or too spaced out. Plus, it was the right amount of room for the items we hoped up there. We already have two tall bookshelves upstairs with a lot of our books, so we liked the idea of using these for some books, but also a mix of plants, art, and other objects we enjoy and simply want to see each day.

Since I mentioned our two other bookshelves upstairs, here they are. As you can tell, we like to add art + plants to our bookshelves fairly much across the board. They are the Ikea Fjalkinge shelving units (yep, more Ikea!) and before you release the book police on us, while it is true that there are about 50 of our nicest-looking hardcover books on these shelves, we also have an whole Besta cabinet in our room by the fireplace packed with our go-to paperbacks and other books.

Ok, back down to the bedroom and how we completed this straightforward update. People on Instagram frequently ask Sherry what drywall anchors we use for projects like this. For load-bearing shelves like this, it is best to go into at least one or two studs (as many as you can, truly) but these 75lb EZAncor anchors are also strong for the spots when you cannot hit a stud. They are Especially straightforward and swift to install, which is why they are our go-to wall anchor. We used these exact anchors to hang these shelves and they are not going anywhere.

Remember that our goal in here was: more space for concealed storage and fairly things we like to look at + a view that does not scream “this is our bedroom!” from the doorway. So we are fairly pleased to end up with something that checks all of those boxes. Also, have you ever met a shelf Sherry did not enjoy styling? I have not.

Also for anyone worrying about what Sherry can reach (somehow she consistently gets asked), she can easily access anything on the bottom two shelves, and she is married to me exclusively for my long arms that can reach the top shelf ;) Also we have chairs. And a step stool.

This video is for anyone who wants to see the whole bedroom and get a feel for how this new corner solution fits into the room as a whole (and how good the view is from the kitchen door where we enter!). It explains more about how we brought in height throughout this room to draw the eye up (the bookshelves balance some other items in the room that have height) and you can see how much storage we gained thanks to her quite active pointer finger:

Note: You can also watch this video on YouTube.

To take this post full circle, I hoped to end with one more before & after of sorts. Remember this view from the top of the post? From right after we moved in?

Now it looks like this (if you are wondering where that mini-split went, this post will fill you in).

It is such a good feeling to “make sense” of this spot that has been stuck in limbo for nearly 3 years. It is easier on the eyes and it is so much more functional for us. Not only did we gain two whole Besta cabinets worth of storage (and three floating shelves worth of vertical storage), we are fully at peace knowing that if we ever change our mind again, nothing was that pricey (yay Ikea!) or permanent (yay, screwdrivers) that we cannot undo it down the road.

UPDATE: SIX MONTHS LATER!

Sherry, here! Simply dropping by with some updated photos of how this corner of our bedroom has evolved. It might be one of my go-to spots in the whole house. I am truly leaning into the whole mermaid-core vibe in here, so if it is pastel, iridescent (or an actual crystal – like these iridescent quartz!) it is a go for these shelves ;)

I have also had a lot of lively incorporating things we have made. The pastel birds were from a workshop I did with some friends. There is also some pottery I have made, art I have done, as well as a painting by my son. And of course, more crystals like a blue calcite orb and green aventurine star.

Here is a wider shot so you can see how these shelves are fitting into the room these days. We lately upgraded to a mirror over the fireplace and it makes it feel so special – like it is a real moment in the room.

Here is another shot so you can see all of the shelves. It is certainly more of a quiet tone-on-tone vibe over the fireplace with the white mirror and sculptural sconces, but the shelves are a riot of shiny colors and vining plants. I simply enjoy it so much.

I will leave you with this updated shot of how this corner looks from the sitting area – it fits right in with the colorful art that is above the sofas, and I enjoy how the view through this doorway does not scream bedroom (like seeing a bed through the door would). It could totally be a cozy library, family room, or other shared space – which feels pleasant to glance at from the main living area.

It is fairly lively to look back six months later to see these shelves go from this:

… to this!

More Floating Shelving Projects

If you want to check out more floating shelves we have brought in (or built ourselves!) here are some other posts that might assist you find a good solution for your space:

• Hands-on Non-Chunky Floating Shelves in our old Bonus Room
• Hands-on Floating Wood Shelves on the kitchen backsplash in the Duplex
• Straightforward “Faux” Floating Shelves in our Beach House Office Nook
• Floating Storage Shelves in our current Laundry Closet
• Plain Floating Closet Shelves in our son’s room

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