Easy Tutorial on How to Install Floating Wood Shelves

Sharing all the latest updates on the office and an easy-to-follow tutorial on building wall-to-wall floating wood shelves! [post contains affiliate links, which means we make a small commission, at NO additional cost to you, if a purchase is made. thanks for supporting north country nest!]

Remember that one time we talked about our office design plans? And then it was radio silence on here.

Well, a few weeks (eight to be exact, but who is counting?!) later and it’s time for some updates and an easy tutorial if you’re loving the wall-to-wall floating wood shelves. If you’re here for the how-to, scroll on down past the updates.

When we left you last, the office was right about here:

Since then… We mudded and sanded alllllll the walls.

We painted the top half of the room this amazing blue (Alaskan Night by Dutch Boy).

We installed the plywood plank floors and if you’re loving them as much as us, check out this tutorial for installation instructions.

We added and stained the trim around both doorways, in Espresso by Varathane.

We installed the closet bi-fold door.

And we installed the wall-to-wall floating wood shelves, which surprisingly, were super easy to make. Yes, easy for me to say since I wasn’t doing too much of the manual labor, but Brett barely broke a sweat putting these babies up! 🙂

First, he measured the width of the wall and cut a 2×4 to fit the entire length. Then, he cut four 2×4’s into 10 inch pieces and secured them to the back of the long 2×4 using #9 construction screws that are 3 1/8″ long.

Once that was together, we screwed it to the wall studs using t-30 torkhead screws, 5″ long.

We were a little unsure on spacing but went with about 15 inches between the bottom of the top shelf and the top of the bottom shelf – try reading that one five times fast 😉

After securing the base, Brett put together the frame using 1×4’s and 1×12’s. If you want your shelves deeper than 12 inches, you would need a wider board.

Clamps and wood glue were his best friend. After securing them together with the clamps, we went along the edge and using the nail gun, nailed the pieces together every 12-or-so inches.

Then they got a nice sanding with 120 grit sandpaper and stained with Minwax Driftwood.

It was a two-person job to lift up the shelves and slide them over the 2×4 brace. And we had a few minor casualties – the drywall we worked so. hard. to make smooth got a few nicks that required more mud to fill in.

I don’t know who was more heart broken about messing up the wall – both of us were diligent about making sure they were smooth before painting. Since the shelves are the width of the room, it makes sense they’d be battling the walls. If you find a way around that, please share!