alcove shelves: brackets

[sarahproperty]

i am fitting wooden shelves into an alcove. the back wall is false and made from studding to hide various pipes and cables; therefore i cannot attach any brackets or supports to that back wall, instead i will need to secure the shelves to each of the side walls at either end of the shelf.

can anyone suggest somewhere i can get, either:
a. wooden brackets which fix to the side walls and then underneath the shelves? or
b. a hidden bracket which fits inside the shelf itself (the shelf is one inch thick) but can be secured to the edges of the shelf and then slid along its counterpart which has been prefitted to side walls. all of the hidden brackets i have found are fitted by pushing the shelf onto the already wall hung bracket but there isnt room to do this with a side supported shelf.

 

[Scrit]

I am fitting wooden shelves into an alcove. the back wall is false and made from studding to hide various pipes and cables; therefore I cannot attach any brackets or supports to that back wall, instead I will need to secure the shelves to each of the side walls at either end of the shelf.

How wide are your shelves? How deep? Are to sure that there are no upright studs within the stud wall you could screw brackets into? Trying to support shelves from the ends alone is courting disaster as the shelves have a natural tendency to sag. To calculate how much sag you'll get, take a look at the Sagulator

Can anyone suggest somewhere I can get, either:
a. Wooden brackets which fix to the side walls and then underneath the shelves?

No need for brackets, this can be done with something like 2 x 1 PAR (planed all round - actually more like 44 x 20mm in size) which can be fixed into the walls at the ends using conventional plugs and preferably also to the back wall by screwing through into the vertical studs (assuming there are some, and if the alcove is wider than 18in there probably are) or failing that by using cavity fixings such as these or these. This is a traditional way of putting up shelves in an alcove. For extra rigidity the ends of the shelves are normally either nailed or screwed onto the end supports.

or
b. A hidden bracket which fits inside the shelf itself (the shelf is one inch thick) but can be secured to the edges of the shelf and then slid along its counterpart which has been prefitted to side walls. All of the hidden brackets I have found are fitted by pushing the shelf onto the already wall hung bracket but there isn't room to do this with a side supported shelf.

One inch is a bit thin for the "floating shelf brackets" like this although that style is really designed to sit at the back (i.e. where your stud wall is). The other thing you describe sounds a bit like what cabinetmaker's call a "magic wire" fitting, but they only work in furniture, not masonry. You could consider getting some aluminium profile (L- or U-section) and fixing that to the walls so that the shelf slides on/in to the profiles.

If in doubt, make your own solution.

Scrit

 

[sarahproperty]

Scrit:

the shelves are 250 mm deep and 25 mm thick adn about 1 metre wide.
i dont understand some of your jargon however; can u do this in "daft bird doing her house up speak" please

thanks

 

[Scrit]

OK. Your false wall sounds a bit like a stud partition with wooden uprights (called studs) to which plasterboard has been attached using either nails or screws. It is highly unlikely that plasterboard will be unsupported across it’s entire width and it will probably be supported behind the corners, so you’ve probably got at least three points across the wall where you could fix some sort of bracket by screwing through the plasterboard and into the wooden stud.

A traditional way to put shelves into alcove was to fix pieces of planed softwood (pine, PAR) to the walls at the ends of the shelf or better still round all three sides of the alcove. The shelf is then rested onto the supports and pinned or screwed down so that it won’t move.

The "floating shelf brackets" are a type of fixing where the shelf is "impaled" on two or more "prongs" attached to the wall behind the shelf. The shelf looks a bit like it is "floating" out of the wall with no visible means of support.

So what other gibberish have I written that I should demystify? Sorry for the jargon - but I’m a trade woodworker and it sort of goes with the territory…..

Scrit

 

[sarahproperty]

thanks for all that

i have tried those prong things but they only work when they are used against the back wall. my back wall does not have suffficient studs vertically to support anything to them as there are vertical studs against the wall and then random horizontal studs across them, but not enough to fix all my shelves to. none of the studs are level or square!

is there a prong thing i can use that can go into the side of the shelf, ie that can somehow slide onto something else? all the ones i have found are for use on a back wall where the shelf is pushed onto it.

you also attached some links to pictures of screw looking things - how would these be used?

alternatively, some ornate shaped pieces of wood could be fixed to either end of the alcove rather than simple planed pine, but i havent been able to find anything like this.

 

[Scrit]

Is there a prong thing i can use that can go into the side of the shelf, ie that can somehow slide onto something else? all the ones i have found are for use on a back wall where the shelf is pushed onto it.

Not as far as I know. All the invvisible fixings are designed to work from the back

You also attached some links to pictures of screw looking things - how would these be used?

They are screwed into the plasterboard then a shelf support batten, bracket or the like is screwed onto the fixing. They have the effect of spreading the load but they are best used with the upright and bracket type of shelf support or to support a full width cross batten in addition to end support battens

Alternatively, some ornate shaped pieces of wood could be fixed to either end of the alcove rather than simple planed pine, but I havent been able to find anything like this.

Try looking at firms like Richard Burbidge (B & Q sell their stuff). Personally I think it will look a bit odd and you'll lose a lot of shelf height at either end. You could always make your own using a jig saw

Scrit