How To Build The Easiest Shelves

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This technique is definitely the easiest way to build a floating shelf. There are no brackets, no corbels, no cleats, no hangars… I know you’re dying to know. We’ll get there.

First, you need to build your shelf. I am building a shelf “box” for the Plank Wall, I just finished. If you haven’t seen this latest project, you need to stop and drop everything and read The Cheapest Way We found to Plank a Wall.

So, you need to determine your length of your shelf. I made mine 4' long. I purchased a 1X6 at 8 ft. long, and cut it in half. I had scrap for the ends. I just bought these new Corner Clamps.They are awesome! I put a bit of wood glue on the end, set them in the clamp, then tighten each side of the clamp. I also added the hand clamp to hold the other end, I probably didn't need to.... It just makes me feel better. ;)

Then I used my nail gun and put a few nails where they meet. You can see that I have 2 clamps and was able to do the entire side at once. Give the glue some time to dry, then I flipped it and did the same thing on the other side. It was so quick!

Here’s a better look of the corner clamp.

Here is the secret to the floating shelf.... Kreg Jig.If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I LOVE using my Kreg Jig.It is one of the best tools I have. If you haven’t invested in one, you should. You WILL use it!

There are 3 studs on the wall where the shelf will be installed. We marked where the studs were on the shelf. You want the screws to go into the studs to give it strength and support. That made it easy to just mark and drill. The Kreg Jig has a slot for two holes, but for this project we just used one at each mark. (This is an old picture from the $40 bed frame, I made my daughter.)

This is the shelf installed and you can barely see the screw and jig hole.

That shelf is secure and will be able to hold just about anything... Although, I'm just putting lil ole coffee cups on mine. :)

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the shelf as far as stain or paint. I just needed some time to decide.

I loaded it up with coffee mugs… But there’s a problem, and Hubby could NOT deal with. Do you see it?

Here it is…. the left side dips down just a bit, from the knot to the end. I wasn’t too worried about it. Nothing’s ever perfect. But he couldn’t take it. He laid the straight edge on the shelf, just to give you the idea of how far off it was.

Here’s a close up. It’s off quite a bit. Hubs seems to think that knot in the wood, kinda warped it right there. So, it came down.

And since it was coming off, I decided it was going to get stained as well. I stained it Minwax Classic Gray …I love the way it came out! Beautiful!! And now it's nice and level.

This is how we fixed it:
Basically, we drilled another Kreg Jig hole right next to the other hole on the left side (close enough that it would still go into the stud), top and bottom. Then, we screwed in all 4 screws on the right side, then hubby pushed that end up with all his might and I screwed it in! Whew teamwork! And it worked perfectly!