Long Floating Shelf DIY – How to Make a Pair for $150

Floating shelves are the staple of a modern home. They create an open and airy feeling, and provide space for displaying and storing beautiful items. While there are many premade options out there, making one from scratch is simple. I did this 6 feet long floating shelf DIY in the basement with only a few power tools and a low-end budget. Today I want to show you the full tutorial on how to build them for your own space.

long floating shelf diy - IKEA white oak kitchen

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This project involves building a hidden support bracket and dressing it up with plywood and 1×2, 1×3 boards. The whole process takes only a few hours and can be done in less than $150, including all the lumber and materials.

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Fill awkward space with pretty floating shelves

As someone who embrace practicality more than aesthetics, I tend to gravitate towards closed door cabinets more than floating shelves. But when the right moment comes, I don’t hesitate jumping at the opportunity to add these beauties in my home.

Rye, New York designed by Studio McGee.

Cliffside Remodel by Studio McGee

My plan for this basement wet bar originally was to use heavy duty shelf brackets (listed for $17 for a pack of 6 on Amazon) with solid wood slabs. This type of metal bracket is a popular choice. It looks nice in contrast with white or wood cabinets. And finding thick white oak boards in a local lumber yard is an easy task.

After doing some research though, I realized I could actually achieve a similar look with much more economical materials, AND make the shelves floating (i.e. NO visible brackets).

The outcome was better what I envisioned. A pair of 6 feet long floating shelves, in wood tone that matches perfectly with the white oak IKEA kitchen cabinets, and fills the empty space between two wall cabinets.

Exact measurements of these DIY floating shelves:

Length: 71 ½”
Depth: 12”
Thickness: 2 ½”
Wood species: Birch plywood + Pine boards

A 20-second video on this build (welcome to my YouTube channel!):

Step 1. Shop supplies

For anyone wanting to take on this project, the materials you need depend on the type of wood you like, the width of the shelves and how deep and thick you want them to be.

A few common ways I’ve seen people make floating shelves are:

1×2 lay on flat as support bracket + ½” plywood top + 5mm plywood bottom + 1×2 front (How To Make DIY Floating Shelves by Young House Love)
1×2 as support bracket + ½” plywood beveled on all the edges
Metal floating shelf bracket + thick wood slabs with holes drilled to the back

I used 1×2 select pine as the support brackets, ½” thick plywood for the top and bottom, and 1×3 for the face of the DIY floating shelves. Since the opening was slightly less than 6 feet, I got all my materials in 6-feet length.

Tools: miter saw, nail gun, Kreg jig, (circular saw + rip cut guide), power drill, long level, measuring tape, stud finder, clamps, 3-1/8″ construction screws, brad nails, pocket hole screws, wood glue, wood filler

Getting the 4×8 plywood ripped down to 11 1/4″ wide each at the store made the process a lot easier later on.

Now you see why this is such a cost-effective DIY project. Because I don’t need expensive brackets or hardware, the lumber itself cost only about $100. How much your project will end up costing can vary, but this should give you a pretty good idea of the basic cost of this easy DIY.

Note you can substitute the 1x2x6 select pine with 1×2 common boards. The ones in my local improvement store were in terrible shape, twisted and warp, so I decided to upgrade to select pine. Even the 1×2 select pines had some bad ones mixed in them. You can see the big pile on the left that I went through.

Step 2. Decide shelf placement

Next up, decide how far up you want the shelves to be.

There are no hard rules when it comes to floating shelves height. The main consideration is the height of the kitchen appliances or kitchenware you will be putting on the countertop and the shelves. You want to leave enough clearance for these items.

Top shelves are usually hard for me to reach. Instead of centering the shelves, I decided to have the top shelf installed 18” from the ceiling, the lower shelf installed18” from the countertop. This way, there is a more comfortable height for access. And I can put less commonly used plates and glass on the top.

Step 3. Locate studs

The next step in this long floating shelf DIY is SUPER important.

When I first started DIYing, I wasn’t too concerned about what’s behind the drywalls. Then one of my DIY friend drilled into plumbing (which turned out to be a residential fire sprinkler system) when she was installing upper cabinets for her home office. Not so long after, another friend got into a similar situation.

It was shocking when this happened both times.

I used green painter’s tape to mark the stud locations.

Before you start drilling into the wall, make sure you find out where the studs are and triple check to be sure.

There is a combination of ways to locate studs:

Use a stud finder
Locate the nearest outlet and find the first stud. Outlet boxes are usually secured to the side of a stud. The adjacent studs are usually 16 inches away. So you can use this to verify the stud locations.
Find the blueprint or photos of the house during framing. This is the most reliable way to tell how the plumbing was laid out.
If you want to be 100% sure, cut a small opening in the drywall and use your smart phone to take photos of the inside.

The biggest issue of relying on the stud finder alone is you may mistaken a water pipe with the 2×4 stud and make the wrong assumption of where the actual location of the stud is. My own home has some weird stud layout. Look at this picture, the two studs on this wall were 12” apart, instead of the standard 16”.

How confusing is this? I had a hard time deciding where exactly the studs were and had to dig out this old photo. I would have drilled straight into the pipes if I used the 16” on center guideline.

Step 4. Build support bracket

After measuring the length of the opening, transfer the location of the studs from the wall to the 1×2 back piece. This ensures the cross pieces (or middle supports) won’t interfere with the screws that go into studs.

When cutting the cross pieces, clamp down a stop block to speed up the process. The distance from the saw blade to the stop block is kept the same this way.

There is a little bit of math here. Our desired shelf depth is 12″, subtract the thickness of the 1×3 front piece (3/4″), subtract the thickness of the 1×2 back piece (3/4″), we end up with 10 1/2″ total length of each cross piece.

After making a cut, I can easily slide the 1×2 to the right for another cut without measuring.

To attach the cross pieces to the back piece of the support bracket, I made pocket holes using Kreg Jig. Apply wood glue to the joints for extra strength.

You may be wondering if you could use regular wood screws and drill straight into the end of the cross pieces. The reason for this is, pocket hole joinery in general is stronger than butt joint. When screwing into the end grain of the 1x2s, the wood can split more easily and have less holding power. But if you don’t have Kreg jig, drill pilot holes before doing a butt joint

Step 5. Secure support bracket

Once the support bracket was done, I held it up against the wall with a long level on top. Then I screwed into the wall studs through the back of the support bracket. Since I’ve already marked the stud locations, this was straightforward.

For a strong, solid hold, I like to use the GRK star head construction screws. The longer screws provider a much stronger support for heavy objects. These are heavy duty and easy to get a tight fit. Also, because I secured the bracket to 4 wall studs, the floating shelf should be hold quite a lot of weight.

Step 6. Nail in top and bottom

Next up, place the pre-cut ½” plywood on top and secure with 1 1/4” brad nails. You can also rip down the 4×8 plywood with a circular saw or a table saw at home.

Make sure to clamp down the plywood before firing the brad nails. I had a few nails poked through, because I didn’t add enough pressure to hold it together. It’s never fun having to deal with brad nails sticking out. I almost always ended up with a big hole to fix.

Repeat the same steps for the bottom part.

Step 7. Nail in front

With the support bracket sandwiched in, cover the unfinished edges with 1×3 select pine.

Line up the 1×3 front piece to the edges of the support bracket. There might be a small bump/dip, which you can sand down later on. The actual size of a 1×3 board is ¾” by 2 ½”, so it matches nicely with the thickness of the shelf (i.e. 2 ½”).

Step 8. Fill nail holes, seal and style

The final steps in this project are to fill nail holes and add protective topcoat. My tip for hiding the nail holes is to pick a light color stainable wood filler—natural is the best for pine and birch. It doesn’t stand out as much and looks a lot more natural than darker color wood filler. Once the wood filler dries, give it a final round of sanding, to remove any unevenness or roughness. Then apply topcoat to protect the wood shelves from stains and scratches.

Extra Long Floating Shelf Before and After

During installation of the IKEA hack wet bar. Without the floating shelves, the space looked empty.

I love the impact these floating shelves have on this otherwise sparse and empty space. It elevates our basement wet bar and gives it a modern look. The light wood tone matches perfectly with the IKEA VEDHAMN kitchenette/wet bar. Even everyday kitchen items and dinnerware look amazing on display.

Can you spot the nail hole in the above picture? Once I sanded it down, it’s barely noticeable and blends in nicely. Probably nobody will notice these imperfections except me.

If you’re concerned of the nail holes, use wood glue only to secure the pieces and make sure to clamp it down while the glue dries.

This simple DIY checks all the boxes: quick (a weekend’s time), easy (only takes a few steps), budget-friendly ($100-$150 material cost) and beautiful (I might be biased but are they lovely all loaded up?). I will be adding hardware and tile backsplash in the future to complete the space. Stay tuned for exciting developments!

If you’re looking for more storage ideas, I have a few DIYs that you may find interesting:

Posted By: Sherry · In: Furniture Build