DIY Floating Shelves: Step-by-Step Guide to Build and Install
The thing I would say I struggle with the most in DIY is wanting to do everything all at once. I’ll have an idea for a total room makeover and want to do every element right away, multiplied by however many rooms we have in our house. But if these DIY floating shelves taught me anything, it’s that getting it right takes time (and sometimes a few adjustments.)
We built these chunky, rustic-looking DIY floating shelves wayyyy back in September of last year to fill a weird entryway space in our house (we’ve talked about it a little before when we made our entryway bench).
They look amazing and really give that empty area some character, plus they tie in perfectly with our DIY fireplace mantel on the other side of the room.
BUT, we had some issues.
When we made them, we didn’t have a lot of the tools and knowledge we do now, so they weren’t as structurally sound as they could be and sagged forward a little too much for comfort.
Typical Alex had the level out checking them honestly I would say a couple times a month for the last 11 months as if they were somehow going to get better and straighten up. Spoiler alert: they didn’t.
View this post on Instagram
It was always on the list to fix them now we own a table saw and pocket hole jig, but getting our house ready to list is really the kick we needed to get it done.
They’re so sturdy now and I feel confident being able to leave them for the next owners to enjoy without someone putting a voodoo curse on our name when they crash in the middle of the night.
The overall dimensions of the finished shelves are 48 inches inches wide by 12 inches deep and 3.5 inches tall.
Here’s how we made our DIY floating shelves (the right way).
On This Page
Tools & Materials
- 1×12 – 4 at 8-feet long (these will be for the top and bottom part of the shelves)
- 1×4 – 3 at 8-feet long (these will make up the front and sides of the shelves)
- 2×4 – 2 at 8-feet long (these will be the E-shaped inner supports)
- Wood stain of your choice (we used Varathane Provincial)
- Polycrylic
- Sander
- Wood filler
- 4-inch screws (these guys need to be heavy duty to go into your studs)
- Drill
- Pocket hole jig
- 1.5-inch Pocket hole screws
- Nails
- Nail gun
- Wood glue
- Level
- Stud finder
How we built these DIY floating shelves
So first you’ve got to understand the basic premise of how these guys work (I’m a very visual person so understanding how something works before actually doing it really helps me).
Basically the 2x4s will be ripped down in half lengthwise and will be pocket-holed together in an E-shape (with the longest line drilled into the wall and the three smaller pieces sticking out) then the rest is made into an open-sided box that fits over that support like a sleeve.
Make the cuts for your supports
Now we have a game plan, you’ve got to make your cuts.I won’t go into detail about the absolute dumpster fire our inner supports were the first time, so let’s just forget that whole lopsided year ever happened and move right onto the correct way to go about it.
First, you’ll use your table saw to rip the 2x4s in half lengthwise, so you’ve got two long, 1.75-inch thick pieces from each one. Next, make four cuts at 46 inches (for the back, long part of the E), and 12 cuts at 9 inches (these will be the three smaller branches of the E, multiplied by four for the four shelves).
Make the cuts for the boxes
Take your 1×12 and make eight cuts at 46.5 inches for the top and bottom of the four shelves. Take your 1×4 and make four cuts at 48 inches for the front of each shelf, and eight cuts at 11.25 inches for the sides of each shelf.
You could miter the edges of these front and side panels if you’d like for a smoother-looking finish – we didn’t, because we didn’t know how at the time – but if you do just remember to adjust your measurements.
Assemble the boxes
This part is really easy, it just probably takes another set of hands.
Lay down one of the 1×12 pieces for the bottom of your shelf, then put the two side pieces on either end, butting up against the long piece, not on top of it. Add a line of wood glue along that seam, then shoot a couple nails in from the outside of the end pieces into the long bottom piece of the shelf.
Do the same thing with the front piece, then flip the whole thing upside down and slide the other long piece between the two end pieces on the open bottom-end and do the wood glue/nail combo again.
Now, you should have a big, long box with one open end! Repeat that whole step another three times to make your four shelves.
Wood fill, sand and stain
Rub a little bit of wood filler over all the nail holes and once dried, give the whole thing a quick sanding to make it nice and smooth. Stain the entire box in whatever color stain you like and give it a couple coats of polycrylic to seal it.
Find your studs
It’s important to do this BEFORE assembling your inner supports!
Okay, so with your trusty stud finder (we use this one because it’s magnetic and catches on the nails in your studs) find where your studs are and mark them vertically with some painters tape. This is important to do before assembling the supports because you want those long screws to go directly into a stud for added support, which may mean the three branches of your E-shaped structure are not evenly-spaced.
It’s more important for those big screws to go into the stud than it is for the inner support to be spaced out. Trust me.
So, once you’ve got your studs marked, figure out where you want the shelves to go. Here’s a handy trick: use another piece of painters tape the same length as the back support piece and hold it up on the wall where you want the shelves to go. Make a mark with a pen everywhere that the vertical stud markers intersect with the horizontal shelf placement marker because that’s where you’ll want to make sure the branches of the E shape do not go.
Hold that piece of tape that’s been marked up against each of the long 2×4 pieces and make another mark so you know not to put the branch parts there.
Assemble the inner supports
Okay, now it’s time to assemble the supports for your DIY floating shelves. Add two pocket holes into one end of each of the 12 smaller support pieces.
Hold three of the 9-inch pieces up against one of the 46-inch pieces in that E shape I talked about, making sure none of them are too close to the marks you made to indicate where your studs will be in the final product.
Using a clamp if you’ve got them, or brute force if you don’t, drill your pocket hole in, preferably securing one smaller support piece at each end of the long piece, and one roughly in the middle.
Attach the supports to the wall
First of all, mark where you want each shelf to go height-wise. This is another thing we tweaked when we rebuilt our inner supports recently because originally the shelves were a little too spaced out. Now they’re all about 13 inches apart from each other, with the first one 17 inches from the ground.
So, starting with the one that’ll be closest to the floor, hold up your support piece vertically (with the stud marker pieces of tape still on the wall), make sure it’s level and then drill your 4-inch screws through the support and into your stud as many times as you can which will depend on your walls. For us, it was three screws for each shelf.
Moment of truth
By now, you should have your support pieces secured to the wall, and your shelf sleeves should be nice and dried. So, hold your breath and slide one of the shelf pieces over the support structure.
You should have a nice, tight fit and a sturdy-feeling shelf! Repeat it three more times so all the shelves are in their place.
You can add some wood glue along the top of that back support before you slide it on if you’re wanting to make it permanent. We wanted to be able to remove them if needed, so we just slid the sleeve on and added one little screw right at the back of each shelf going down into that long support piece up against the wall so it wouldn’t slide.
And there you have it – custom, expensive-looking DIY floating shelves on a budget! Here are the tools we used to make it.
If you like these DIY floating shelves, check out our DIY fireplace mantel that uses a pretty similar idea, and make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to keep up-to-date on our next projects!
