Live Edge Floating Shelves
The weather this weekend meant working on indoor projects. So we decided to cross floating shelves off our list. A while back we picked out two live edge pine boards for this project. They had some drying to do since the kiln isn’t up and running yet.
But, lets go back to the beginning and see how we built and installed them. First up we had to cut down the pine trees. 🙂
No joke. These shelves were built using the pine trees we cut down at my Mom’s house.
Once we picked out our boards, it was a waiting game. We had to let them dry. Another test in patience. Once we get the kiln running, our wait time will be drastically reduced.
The up side of an open floor plan house is lots of space, the down side is less wall space. We finally landed on this wall for our floating shelves. I measured and taped off the approximate location over a month a go. And this is how it sat.
First step was cutting the boards to length.
Sending them through the planer.
And giving them a good sanding.
I wanted a groove towards the back of the board for standing pictures or plates etc. to help keep them upright.
And the result…
Then it was my turn to work on the shelves. I applied three coats of polyurethane over the course of a couple of days. Jim hand sanded between each coat.
I don’t know if any of you can relate… but in general, when I show something to Jim either in a store or online, his first response is always, “I can make that!” Sometimes it gets made and sometimes not. Thank goodness he hasn’t built a loom, so I can still buy my own clothes. 🙂
When we first started thinking about this project, I showed Jim the hardware online for hanging floating shelves. Guess what he said?
He bought a steel flat bar and a steel rod. He cut small 1 1/4 inch squares from the flat bar and then drilled two holes in each for the screws to go through to hold up the shelves.
Then he cut the round steel rod into 6 inch lengths.
The studs in the wall determined where the hardware had to go, and how many we could use. Ended up using two for each. The longer shelf didn’t quite reach the third stud.
Now for the big test!! Jim had to weld the rod to the small steel piece he cut from the flat bar.
Here is the result.
Back to the boards, Jim had to drill holes into the shelves for the steel rod to slide into.
Jim used the router to make room for the steel bracket to sit flush.
Back in the house, Jim attached the new hardware he made to the wall using two screws, screwed into the studs.
This was a prototype we made before we started to put our hardware theory to the test. It shows you how the boards are going to hang.
And with that, we had 2 inch thick, Â live edge floating shelves.
And…
I’m sure I’ll be changing things out over time. That’s the fun of it.
Later
2 Comments
Pingback:
Pingback: