I am currently working for a client and building a custom desk with three shelves above it. She wants the shelves 16″ deep and to run the entire length of the wall, 15′ 6”, with no visible support. I normally build this kind of shelving out of double 3/4 ply and face it with poplar for a paint grade installation.
My question to all of you, what would you consider the best method for cantilevering these shelves off the wall?
I am considering opening the walls and putting metal “L” brackets but this is an awfully messy approach.
I could get metal “L” brackets at the local lumber yard but they would be very visible….
hmmm…
help anyone?
thanks
Gordon
Replies
Do a search on "floating shelves". Basically it is a box, say three inches thick. The box is strong because it is skinned top and bottom. You need some way of removing the top so you can lag bolt the box to the wall from inside the box and then attach the top of the shelf (or box). YOu dress the box up with moldings.
Prettty slick. I have never seen one 15 feet long, but don't see any reason you could not do it. I think it would be COOL! I mignt have to think about it for my house.
Also you could see small versions in a Pottery Barn or was taht Restoration Hardware catelog. They use hangs on the back so they would be too week , but you could get an idea as to how to dress them up.
It's called a torsion box. The box/shelf will be plenty strong enough, it's the wall brackets that need to be considered carefully.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
NO BRACKETS DUDE! Lag from inside!
Like the others said a floating shelf or torsion box should do it. I have made smaller versions. I make a ladder frame out of either ripped ply or 1x. I skinned in luan and put the top on with small brass countersunk screws. I sized the depth(thickness) to use a moulding of choice for the front and ends. I attached them with 1/4" lags with washers into the studs. Reinstalled top skin and done, looked super. Did these in cherry.
16 inch deep shelves - are they going to put any books on them? If so, the simple box in the wall might come crashing down.
I did 18 inch shelves directly above the garage doors, so I put the brackets on the top of the shelves, so they looked floating from below.
What if you built a box shelf that would receive the L bracket ends, put the brackets going upward, and camouflaged the brackets. You could texture and paint them.
If you do it right and do not put three sets of encyclopedias on it it won't come down. Of course that would only be three little CD's now. If you use 3/4 ply and make them tall enough for casing or chair rail molding, glue and screw with furniture grade screws in a good length they will hold up a lot. Corner brackets or gussets inside the frame would add a good bit of strength.
Bounce this off your client. Say every 4' or so on each shelf is a "book", not neccessarily lined up over each other. Well, not really - it's actually a hollowed out cover for the brackets . . . (mounted upside down, as in a previous post, so each shelf hangs from the supports).
Would be tricky and cool and not expensive . . .Nobody ever has totally empty shelves - else, why would you need them?
She could choose appropriate volumes for effect -
Forrest
That is a brilliant solution!
Although I do like the L brackets hidden in the wall idea too.
Kudos!Gord
Just an idea...
If those shelves need to carry a heavy load, you could use pieces of 3/4" x 1/8" x 19" steel bar. Cut a 3/4" chunk of drywall out at the studs (it could even go the whole length and help stiffen the shelves by setting them into the drywall) so you can lag screw the bar into the studs. The bar is flat against the long face of the stud. Through drilled holes in the metal bar, you can run a dowel to connect two sections of shelf together. Compound smooths over the transition between the bar and shelf.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!