Solid wood floating shelves in alcove

[dje29]

Hello all,

I'm looking to put up some shelves in the alcove next to an antique pine fireplace. I've got hold of some old pine floorboards that match up well, but I'm having trouble deciding upon the best way to install them. I want no visible brackets, so that they are floating in the alcove, but

a) the walls of the alcove are not perpendicular to the back - ie I can't use runners and
b) the left side alcove wall is plasterboard and the shelf does not come out as far as the first stud, so I would have to put the supports into the plasterboard

The alcove is just under 1m wide and the shelves 8" wide and 1" thick - what is the strongest invisible support I can use?

I'm new so apologies in advance if this is been answered before.

 

[Alarm]

Seen threaded rod used before.

 

[foxhole]

Is the alcove wider at the rear than the front? You could route a channel along the sides and rear about 8mm wide 10mm deep and fix screw to wall leaving 8mm protruding and then slide your shelf onto them.
Or if the walls don't allow , use same fixing method but just notch out the underside of the shelf where it meets the screw heads and tap it down over them.

 

[dje29]

Thank you both for your replies.

I saw the threaded rod suggestion, but as I am fitting the shelves up to all three walls of the alcove, I feel I can get a stronger support than that.

The alcove is wider at the front than the back and I think the routed channels seems like the best option. Rather than screws though, which would concentrate the load on individual points, I thin that a thin tongue and groove runner would spread the load the best (ie rout a groove in the shelf on three sides and fix a metal runner to the three walls theen slide the shelf in) But I'm struggling to find such a thin tongue runner...

 

[foxhole]

Whats exactly is a 'thin tongue runner'?
Screws under an inch thick timber would give plenty of support.

 

[r896neo]

Use a bit of angle iron bolted to the wall and then an appropriate channel routed out of the shelf

 

[Alarm]

All of that will give support only on the edges, threaded rod would support far more.

 

[foxhole]

All of that will give support only on the edges, threaded rod would support far more.

Best place to support shelves and spread load is at edges, drill holes thru 1inch timber for rods and there will be very little timber supported , just a few mm which will rip out if heavily loaded.

 

[Alarm]

So "floating shelves" are weak?

A few mm into a edge would create even more "shear" force IMHO.

 

[foxhole]

Floating shelves are designed to be 50mm thick in order to have enough timber above them to not fail, inch timber is way to thin.Leverage action on rod method make them inferior to any other method of fixing.

 

[foxhole]

Floating shelves are designed to be 50mm thick in order to have enough timber above them to not fail, inch timber is way to thin.Leverage action on rod method make them inferior to any other method of fixing.So yes floating shelves using rod brackets are very weak by comparison.

 

[r896neo]

You must be smoking crack? A 10mm leg of some angle iron into an edge would be brilliant support and far stronger than the rod/prong brackets. The only reason all of them are not done this way is the inevitable uneveness of walls giving a larger gap at the back than the front and so shelves of this design would not actually fit to slide in.

Also the fact that some people want them to actually looking as if they are floating by not touching the side walls.

 

[foxhole]

You must be smoking crack? A 10mm leg of some angle iron into an edge would be brilliant support and far stronger than the rod/prong brackets. The only reason all of them are not done this way is the inevitable uneveness of walls giving a larger gap at the back than the front and so shelves of this design would not actually fit to slide in.

Also the fact that some people want them to actually looking as if they are floating by not touching the side walls.

I'm sure Alarm would not use crack.

 

[Alarm]

Cheers nope I would not.

Still say some angle routed in wil not be much cop unless all around the edges.
Basic shelf design has not changed over the years.