Alcove shelves

[Matt..]

I have a victorian terrace with lots of alcoves and I'd like to put up some shelves. The shelves will be approx 1m x .3-.4m. I want to make them with no visible supports, and capable of holding some weight (though nothing too major). All here walls around the shelves are solid,

Can anyone recommend a method to make them? And what materials would be best to use? I'd prefer to not have very thick shelves if possible, but need them to not show how they are supported and be 'clean' looking.


Thanks

[B17NNS]

Google concealed shelf support of floating shelf bracket.

I've done it in the past by resin bonding studded bar into holes made in the wall. Rout channels into the shelf and once the shelf is in place fill the holes with P38 and sand and decorate.

[ndg]

B17NNS said:

Google concealed shelf support of floating shelf bracket.

I've done it in the past by resin bonding studded bar into holes made in the wall. Rout channels into the shelf and once the shelf is in place fill the holes with P38 and sand and decorate.

Did exactly this in our alcoves, but with smooth ali bar - looked good

[037]

This is a pic of my sons bedroom as an example of a built in shelve! We used 3x2 and brought the front down to conceal the led strip light.
To span 1.00m you want to be sure that whatever material you use won't deflect under weight!

[Chicken Chaser]

Bespokenature.co.uk is what I looked at when I was considering a bespoke shelf design. I didnt buy from them in the end as I decided not to put a shelf there, but the samples they sent looked just the job.

[B17NNS]

037 said:

Bang tidy that

[jgmadkit]

If you are making them yourself and will be painting them then the way I did ours was to make a wood batten sandwich. Basically MDF sheet top and bottom with wood batten sandwiched between them and glued. Leave a battens width clear at either end and the long edge that goes against the wall as you will fix the same size battens on the wall for the shelf 'sandwich' to slide onto and fix. Front edge of shelf is again MDF to cover the sandwich. Get all the MDF cut free by B&Q and you also save the hassle of cutting the MDF yourself and get clean edges into the bargain. It takes a little while to do but once sanded and painted and on the wall they are very strong and look great. Mine are about 45mm thick in total using 12mm MDF and 21mm battens.

[Matt..]

jgmadkit said:

If you are making them yourself and will be painting them then the way I did ours was to make a wood batten sandwich. Basically MDF sheet top and bottom with wood batten sandwiched between them and glued. Leave a battens width clear at either end and the long edge that goes against the wall as you will fix the same size battens on the wall for the shelf 'sandwich' to slide onto and fix. Front edge of shelf is again MDF to cover the sandwich. Get all the MDF cut free by B&Q and you also save the hassle of cutting the MDF yourself and get clean edges into the bargain. It takes a little while to do but once sanded and painted and on the wall they are very strong and look great. Mine are about 45mm thick in total using 12mm MDF and 21mm battens.

What's the span of that?

MDF seems a good option if I can get it precut, but it would need to be accurate, and I doubt B&Q are! Nothing is straight in this house, and there are no 90degree angles anywhere!

I'd like to keep the shelves under 5cm ideally, and they will end up white.

My other thought was as what I've quoted, but using real wood (timberboard/furniture board). The boards are ~18mm thick though, so would need to use something thin on the bottom of the shelf to prevent it being too thick. One advantage is this comes in the correct width, so would only be cutting the ends.

I would guess strength wise it's: timberboard > ply > mdf?

[mattdaniels]

With the floating shelves that you buy from the likes of Ikea, there's a long metal plate with "bars" sticking out of it that you screw to the wall, and the shelf has holes in the back and you slide that on to the bars. Might be able to buy something off the shelf (do you see what I did there? ) which fits what you need or else fabricate something similar?

[Wozy68]

jgmadkit said:

If you are making them yourself and will be painting them then the way I did ours was to make a wood batten sandwich. Basically MDF sheet top and bottom with wood batten sandwiched between them and glued. Leave a battens width clear at either end and the long edge that goes against the wall as you will fix the same size battens on the wall for the shelf 'sandwich' to slide onto and fix. Front edge of shelf is again MDF to cover the sandwich. Get all the MDF cut free by B&Q and you also save the hassle of cutting the MDF yourself and get clean edges into the bargain. It takes a little while to do but once sanded and painted and on the wall they are very strong and look great. Mine are about 45mm thick in total using 12mm MDF and 21mm battens.

This ^^^^^ Its absolutely how we make ours other than we usually finish around 60MM thick. It is pretty foolproof to install aswell.

[MuffDaddy]

I have just finished modifying four Ikea Lack shelves to fit an alcove. Trimmed 2cm off each bracket and chopped the ends of the shelves to suit. Gives a nice finish with very little effort. I could caulk and paint the same colour as the wall.

[Yazar]

Matt.. said:

I have a victorian terrace

Something to bear in mind: As this is a party wall, too many holes and you may end up lowering the current sound proofing levels.

[Matt..]

Yazar said:

Something to bear in mind: As this is a party wall, too many holes and you may end up lowering the current sound proofing levels.

It's only going to be 3 or 4 shelves, nothing too major!

Only going one alcove as its all very minimal, I don't want more places to put 'stuff'!