Woodworking On The Cheap

Have you ever seen those stylish, sleek shelves that seem to jut out of a wall without a single supporting structure? Have you ever wanted to make something like that for yourself or someone you know but couldn’t quite figure out how to engineer the solution, or thought it would cost too much?

Look no further. We’re happy to announce the first Project post here at Woodworking On The Cheap is a blind or floating shelf and support system. Read on for details, SketchUp models, and measured drawings.

Our blind shelf system is a two-piece system, consisting of home-made brackets, and the shelf itself. Detailed drawings, Installation Instructions with photos, and more information is included in the Archive Download above.

Mounting Brackets

The brackets are made of 1/2″ thick cabinet-grade (7-ply) plywood. We’re sure you could substitute something else here (say 3/4″ thick, or maybe 1/2″ thick CDX grade) but we selected 1/2″ thick baltic birch ply for it’s bi-directional stability, and we had a scrap piece on hand.

1. Start by cutting strips of plywood 1 & 1/8″ wide, then cut sections 3 & 1/2″ long. Cut three for a 42″ long shelf. Cut two for a 36″ shelf.
2. Mark a mid-line down the length of the brackets, 9/16″ from the top and bottom.
3. Measuring in 1/2″ from each side, mark the center location to drill 3/8″ diameter holes to receive the dowels.
4. Measuring 1 & 3/8″ from each side, mark the center location for 1/8″ diameter screw holes to mount the bracket to the wall.
5. Align and clamp the brackets together.
   1. Drill (all at once) the 3/8″ holes and 1/8″ holes through the brackets.
6. Unclamp the brackets, and counter-sink the 1/8″ holes on one side of each bracket. This will be the side that faces the shelf (the front).
7. Cut lengths of 3/8″ dowel. For a 5″ wide shelf use 4″ long dowels. Cut two for each bracket.
8. Mount the dowels in a drill, and using low-grit (coarse) sand-paper, lightly sand to remove some of the diameter. The idea is to make it just a little easier to slide the shelf over the dowels, but but so loose that the shelf easily slides on the dowels.
9. Glue the dowels into the 3/8″ holes in the brackets, making sure the dowel is flush to the back of the bracket. The dowels should protrude on the side that has had the 1/8″ holes counter-sunk. Before you glue all the dowels in place, use one to make a template for drilling the holes in the back of the shelf. (See Step 2 of the Shelf instructions)

Shelf

The shelf should be at least 1 & 1/2″ thick. Two 3/4″ thick boards face-glued to each other works out perfectly. Apply a thin layer of glue to each face, align the boards, and clamp over-night. Make sure you glue before cutting to final dimensions. Joint one side then rip to width. We used 3/4″ thick poplar cut to 5″ wide and 42″ long.

1. Once you have the shelf board (1.5″ thick, as long as you’d like)
2. Use a mounting bracket to create a template for drilling evenly spaced holes in the back of the shelf. You could use a mounting bracket itself (if you’re into repetition) or you could use a bracket to make a larger template out of plywood.
   1. Cut a piece of plywood to the thickness of the shelf to create the template.
   2. Center a bracket on the template, and drill a 3/8″ hole though the template using the bracket as a guide.
   3. Using a scrap piece of dowel, pin the bracket to the template, and drill another hole using the open bracket hole as a guide.
   4. Unpin the bracket, slide it down, then pin the last hole drilled. Continue until you reach the end of your template.
   5. Find the center-point between two holes on the template, center-punch, and drill a 3/8″ hole. Repeat the process of pinning the bracket, drilling the other hole, unpinning, sliding, and pinning the bracket. You should end up with a template of 3/8″ holes, spaced 1 & 1/4″ apart.
3. Align your template with the back of your shelf. The first hole should be 2 & 1/4″ from the end of the shelf.
   1. Drill the first hole in the template, shallowly. Use a spare piece of dowel to pin the template in place.
   2. Drill the remaining holes to a depth 1/8″ deeper than your dowels. If your bracket dowels are 4″ long, make your holes 4 1/8″ deep.
   3. Before removing the template, pin another hole, and drill the first hole to the proper depth.
   4. Slide the template down the length of the shelf, using the same process to drill the shelf holes as you did to make the template.
4. Use a stacked dado (CAREFULLY!) or router to remove most of the wood for the mortise along the length of the back of the shelf. Don’t forget to leave 1 & 7/16″ untouched on each end of the shelf. If you’re using a dado, be extremely careful when lowering the shelf onto the blade. Remember to stop cutting before the blade passes the 1 & 7/16″ mark from the end of the board.
5. Pare / square the ends of the mortise to be square and true with the rest of the mortise. Clamp the shelf when cutting the mortises to ensure that the shelf’s fragile 3/16″ thick edges don’t split from the rest of the shelf.

Installing (Hanging) the Shelf

1. Determine where on the wall you want your shelf.
2. Using a stud-finder, locate the edges of the studs in the wall. It is ideal to mount the brackets directly into the studs. If stud spacing will not allow for the shelf to be mounted to studs, toggle bolts or other high-strength in-wall mounting systems can be used.
3. Place the shelf on the ground front edge down so you’re looking at the back of the shelf. Space the brackets, partially inserting the brackets into the shelf. When the shelf is held to the wall the brackets should line up with the studs (or other mount points).
4. Starting with the left-most bracket, drive the left screw to secure the bracket to the wall.
5. Leaving the other brackets partially inserted, slide the shelf onto the leftmost bracket which is now partially secured to the wall. Using a pencil, mark the left and right sides of the brackets yet to be secured to the wall.
6. Using a level, level the shelf, mark a line across the tops of the brackets remaining to be secured using a pencil. There should now be three sides of the remaining brackets outlined on the wall.
7. Remove the shelf from the left-most bracket, and secure the remaining brackets with one screw to the wall, using your pencil marks as guides. It is important to only use one screw when securing the brackets at this point.
8. Test-fit by partially sliding the shelf onto the brackets. Do NOT push the shelf flush to the wall yet. If there are alignment issues with the brackets, detach it from the wall, then use the other screw and hole (a 2nd chance!) to reposition and mount the bracket.
9. Once the shelf easily slides partially onto the brackets, remove the shelf, and drive the remaining screws for the brackets.
10. Slide the shelf back onto the brackets, then apply even pressure across the length of the shelf to slide it flush to the wall.