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Carpentry & Joinery

Floating shelves for shallow alcove @11cm - help needed

Anonymous user 15/03/2024 - 2.53 PM

Hi I am trying to build some floating shelves into the alcoves beside my chimney breast (brick walls, 1930s house). The depth of the chimney breast is only 11cm but is 140cm wide. However I am looking to have shelves that are 15cm in depth with length 140cm to fit the alcove - height will be something I need your help on. The extra additional complication is that because the shelf depth is greater than the alcove depth, I want the shelves to have 45 degree angled clipped ends as I think aesthetically it will better blend the shelves into the wall. Finally I will be finishing the shelves to be the same colour as my walls, so will most likely use an eggshell paint. I initial thoughts are that because the shelves are quite long, and to prevent sagging, I want to build a timber frame and clad the top and bottom in MDF for finishing purposes. However, I am stuck on the following points: *The best way to build a timber frame to accommodate the 15cm depth shelves in a 11cm depth alcove? *Length of shelves will be 140cm, so how best to reduce chance of sagging. *How the timber frame can be built to accommodate the 45 degree angled clipped ends of the shelves? *The optimal configuration of the timber frame that provides a medium weight load (looking to at most fill the entire width of shelf in mainly paper back books or plant pots). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks K

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4 Answers

Anonymous user

Hi K The frame option would work you did not mention what timber you would use to build those frames? I will assume your using something around 35 mm thick and is a square timber any more than this when you over clad the frame it may appear to thick if you are using mdf around 12mm thickness this will give you a finish of around 50mm thickness of your shelves. Make sure when building the frame you set it back 10mm in the alcove. Use 18mm mdf cut at the required length for the front lip and cut or chamfer the front corners back around 8mm this will give you the cut back your looking for. Hope this helps good luck! You could use a piece of softwood for the front edge cut in the same way when it's painted it will all look the same

Answered26 January 2020

Anonymous user

hi, softwood timber 40mm thick framing with 45 degree to face edges, 12mm mdf to bothsides leave top mdf off concealed fixing to backwall and sides, fit top section mdf, face timber or mdf to hide edges of mdf,

Answered26 January 2020

Upcycle Interiors Limited

Rating: 5 out of 5

Weymouth

Hi. To answer this photos are needed. Happy for you to send them to me. Sounds like what you are doing is possible but without a photo or sketch it's hard to tell. Ps do you mean the shelves would be 15mm thick? That's very thin... Pps eggshell paint isntba problem, look at leyland trade range, they have an eggshell paint that's goes on plaster walls AND woodwork, so everything can match :-) Mark

Answered26 January 2020

Steve Austen

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Sheffield

Dependant upon the weight the shelves have to support, 2x 18mm MDF bonded together would be sufficient, get a better finish and be cheaper to produce🤞

Answered1 February 2020