Top mount shelf brackets?

[2Btoo]

I am trying to put up some shelves above a picture rail in an old house. The picture rail is about 40cm from the ceiling of the room and would be ideal to put lever arch files on - i.e. fairly large heavy things that aren't looked at often.

However, in order for the shelves to be as close to the top of the picture rail as possible they will need to be supported with brackets that fit above the shelves, rather than the more conventional brackets that sit below the shelf.

Has anyone come across such brackets, or have any idea of where to go looking for such a thing?

Thanks for your help.

[FurtiveFreddy]

I spent a fair amount of time Googling this for a shelf I needed to put up just above some existing tiles I didn't want to drill and came to the conclusion that the best option was just to mount a pair of normal brackets upside down and use bolts through the shelf/bracket to secure them properly.

Another option may be to use floating brackets.

[2Btoo]

Quick reply, thanks!

When you say "Normal Brackets" I presume you mean London brackets, like this:



I can see the logic in using bolts through them to hold the shelf itself up, although am cautious about the force that it will put on the rawlplugs in the wall; won't it exert quite a substantial pull on the top one, which is a single (as opposed to being doubled up, as the lower one would be)?

[FurtiveFreddy]

I used a pair like this:


So they effectively had built-in 'bookends'.

As long as you do a proper job of Rawlplugging they should be strong enough. If you're still concerned, just use Rawlbolts!

[anonymous-user]

How about a hidden bracket so you effectively have a floating shelf?

Such as


or

[Simpo Two]

I have 'normal' brackets mounted inversely in my workshop and they're fine. You lose a bit of shelf space where the bracket is, and the top can be visible (doesn't matter in a workshop but might not be ideal in a house). There will be some pull on the top screw but if it's securely fixed it will be fine. You could add some extra security by angling the hole down.

[2Btoo]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Garyhun, I fear that the mechanical advantage of those hidden shelf mountings would be very low, and they hence wouldn't take the weight of 10ft of lever arch files (which is what we'll be putting on them).

FF - I like those, thanks for the suggestion.

[anonymous-user]

You'd be surprised if you get the right wall fixings.

I had this in my kitchen and the shelf had a lot of very heavy objects on it.