DIY Budget Floating Shelves
Floating shelves are very trendy right now but that's not the only reason to love them. They can be built very inexpensively but give a blank wall some character.
Our floating shelves were an accent feature I knew I wanted in this kitchen. We have an open floor plan and I knew that this could be viewed from all angles of our main floor. I wanted to have opportunities to create beautiful spaces, hence opting for open shelving.
The total cost of our opening shelving cost less than $120. Before we went to the hardware store, we measured out the length of the shelves we wanted. We bought two long planks of pine wood from Home Depot, we gave the measurements to the folks at Home Depot and they cut it for us. (This is an awesome service they provide and now the planks of wood will fit in your car!) We even kept the scrap pieces that were cut off at the end for a different project.
If you want your shelves to be smooth to the touch, give them a good sand before applying your stain. We skipped this step because we were on a time crunch and after three years of use, you would never be able to tell because no one is running their fingers on these shelves.
Then we pre-stained them with Minwax wood conditioner that helps wood absorb stain evenly. Next I used Varathane Premium gel stain in Golden Pecan over them. The brackets were $15 a piece and can be found here. They are by Knape & Vogt and are made for 8"-10" shelf depth for a maximum of 16 inches apart when mounted.
We had our contractors drill them into the subway tile and into the wall. They used wall anchors and they can hold a fair bit of weight on them. If you are doing this step by yourself, make sure you use a stud finder to locate beams behind your walls so that the shelves will be sturdy. Because we drilled into tiles, you have to use a diamond tip drill bit to make sure you don't crack the tiles.
These shelves are one of my favourite things to decorate in our house and they were very inexpensive and easy to install!
Thanks for reading!
Love,