If you’re looking for an easy DIY floating shelf tutorial that’s sturdy and uses zero hardware, look no further! This simple 5-step floating shelf not only holds up to the weight, but it’s also incredibly easy to do. All you need is a piece of wood and some screws. No brackets required!
How to Make a DIY Floating Shelf the Easy Way
If you’ve been wanting to make your own DIY floating shelves, then you’ve probably looked into all sorts of mounting methods and hardware. The beauty of the method I’m about to share is that you don’t have to invest in any extra mounting brackets or take more complex steps to get a nice finished product.
There are three ways (that I know of) to make a floating shelf without any visible brackets:
- Using hidden shelf brackets, such as these
- Building your own brackets like I did for the built-in shelves in our closet office
- With a solid wood board and screws – my preferred method!
I’ve used all three floating shelf methods and can tell you, #3 is BY FAR the cheapest and easiest to do! That’s the method I’m sharing in this easy DIY floating shelf tutorial.
When renovating our home office / guest room, I envisioned a 14 ft. floating shelf spanning the entire back wall. I didn’t want to use any floating shelf brackets to keep with the modern style of the room. When I first saw this method of mounting a floating shelf, I had my doubts. However, we mounted our 14 ft. floating shelf using this method, then stacked a bunch of heavy trophies on top of it. The reason this method can reliably hold so much weight is because you mount the floating shelf directly into every stud in the wall. In theory, with the correct screws, each point it’s attached to the stud should hold over 50lbs. Our 14 ft. shelf has held the weight without issue, which is why I’m confident recommending this to others!
Read on to learn the easy way to make a beautiful, modern floating shelf.
My Go-To DIY Floating Shelf Tutorial – Easy, Sturdy and Zero Hardware!
Supplies Needed:
- Solid Wood Board(s) of desired size
- Box of 2” Kreg Screws
- Kreg Wood Pocket-Hole Plugs (preferably in the same wood as your board)
- Orbital Sandpaper in 80, 120, and 240 grit
- Stain and Sealer of choice
Tools Used:
- Stud Finder
- Kreg Jig (with clamps)
- Drill
- Level
- Orbital Sander
Step 1: Locate the Studs
This step is crucial in making a strong floating shelf that can hold substantial weight. Using your stud finder, locate the studs in your wall where you want to mount your shelf. I like to find both sides of the stud so I know where the center of the stud is, and then mark it with a piece of painters’ tape. Do this across the entire length of the wall where your shelf will be mounted. As a general rule, the studs will be spaced about 16” apart.
Step 2: Mark the Stud Location on Your Floating Shelf
Once all studs are marked, you want to mark those points on your floating shelf board. If you’re shelf is small enough in size, you can hold it up to the wall where it will be mounted and mark the center of each stud onto the board. If you’re working with a larger board like we did, then we simply marked the stud locations on the back of our measuring tape (anything that’s the same length of your board will work for this), then transferred to our board. It’s important to make sure your board is lined up where you will want it mounted when doing this as you’ll be drilling it into the studs at those points.
Step 3: Drill Kreg Holes in Your DIY Floating Shelf
This method works by drilling the board itself directly into the studs. In order to do that, we need to use a kreg jig. Align your kreg jig with each mark on your shelf and drill a kreg hole at each stud location. The location of the jig will depend on the thickness of your board, so make sure it’s at the correct setting before drilling. Once you’ve drilled the holes, your floating shelf is ready for finishing!
Step 4: Sand, Stain, and Seal Your Floating Shelf
The most important part of this is to sand your board to a nice smooth finish. I started with 80 grit sandpaper and sanded the entire length of the board on the top, bottom and all sides. I followed that with 120 grit and finishing with 240 grit. You can go even higher if you’d like an even smoother finish. When sanding, I spent a little extra time to clean up the holes since they’ll be somewhat visible once mounted.
Now, you have a decision to make: whether to stain and seal your shelf now or after it’s mounted. I’m new to staining and not the cleanest about it, so I stained our floating shelf before mounting it. However, if you’re using the pocket-hole plugs and want them to match perfectly, then it may be better to stain the shelf once it’s mounted and caps/plugs in place.
Step 5: Drill Your Floating Shelf into the Studs
Are you ready to see how easy this is?? Pre-screw the screws just slightly into each kreg hole. Then align the kreg holes with the marked studs on the wall and drill the shelf straight into the studs. That’s it! You’re floating shelf is mounted and secure!
The finishing touch is to plug the holes with the pocket-hole plugs and stain your board if it’s not already.
New favorite DIY floating shelf tutorial? I think so!
Tips for Mounting a 14 ft. Shelf:
In case you’re just as crazy as us and want a very long floating shelf in your home, here’s how we got it inside and mounted with only the two of us…
We brought it inside through the window. This was our plan all along, and I’m thankful we had our DIY daybed there to rest it on, otherwise this definitely would require more than two people!
We used a ladder to hold it up at the correct height. Since it was just the two of us, we adjusted our ladder to the height we wanted and balanced the shelf on top. I held it at one end while my husband began mounting the shelf from the other end. All in all, I think the ladder actually made it easier than a third person because it remained steady and level vs. having two people try to hold the board just right.