Gallery Wall "floating" Shelf

The Zaitleys
by The Zaitleys
9 Materials
$20
1 Hour
Easy

Keeping on our gallery wall theme. Here is how we made the “floating” shelf.

What you will need for this project: 


-       2 plywood storage boxes from the dollar store

-       2 planks of wood 

-       Wood glue

-       Clamps 

-       L shaped brackets and screws

-       Sander or sandpaper 

-       Jig saw or drywall knife

-       Circular saw 

-       Electric drill 

1.     Prep your wood boxes and wood planks:

For the dollar store plywood boxes, you are going to want to remove the bottoms so they are just the 4 walls. For me, the bottom was in very tight so I made a hole in the bottom with a drywall knife and used my jigsaw to cut out some pieces to lessen the pressure. This allowed me to slide the bottom out.

Once you have your 4 walled box without a bottom you’ll want to sand it down until its smooth. 

For your wood planks you’ll want to cut them so they are the width of your boxes and a bit longer. I decided to add one boxes worth of length extra and split them up so we had extra space on both of the sides. Once cut, sand down any rough edges using an electric sander of sandpaper. 

·      If you are wanting to paint or stain your pieces, this would be the time to do that. We decided to leave ours natural as it esthetically made sense with our gallery wall. 


1.     To make this a floating shelf you will want to hide your L shaped brackets behind the walls of the box. The best way to do this is lay your bottom piece of wood on a flat surface. Place the 2 plywood boxes in place and mark left and right behind the outside walls of the plywood boxes. While you are here, also mark where you want your boxes to be. Once marked, place the boxes to the side and attach the l brackets to the bottom wood plank. Note that they will still stick out a bit which will allow you to drill the into the wall easily. But make sure they stick out on the inside of the outside wall, so they are more hidden. 

·      Put the brackets on the bottom so that the shelf can hold a bit more weight.


1.     Time to glue your boxes to your planks of wood. Use wood glue and using the guides you previously marked to attach the bottom plank to the box. Repeat this step for the top plank as well. Once they are both glued either clamp until dry or use something heavy on top to keep them in place until dry.

Once dry you can hang on the wall. You will want to either drill into studs or use anchors. 


·      This is an ornamental shelf. Not a load bearing shelf. We use it for our crystals and some display objects. It would also be good for keys and wallets by the front door. But do not put a large amount of weight on it. 


·      We have had ours up for a year now with no problems and it is home to about 10 crystals and stones, a beaver scull, a small vase, and 3 jars. 

Pop over to our blog for more tutorials about our gallery wall!

Resources for this project:
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The Zaitleys
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