Building and Installing Custom Shelves for Your Home
There are many tools that you can use to create these custom built in shelves to any room; hammers and nails, or a nail gun, screwdrivers and screws, circular saws, a measuring tape, a level and wood glue. You will also require, varying lengths of plywood at least one inch thick for the shelves.
Built in shelves depth vary from twelve to eighteen inches, opting for eighteen inches is a large consideration because it could take more than a foot from the floor space of the room.
To create adjustable shelves to the built in shelf system consider building in brackets at different intervals throughout the shelving unit, and have the shelves able to move around at varying levels to accommodate changing collections.
Built in bookshelves look fantastic on the side of a fireplace, or on an entire wall in the library, dining room or entryway – even in the bedroom.
The first step to building custom built-in shelves is to determine the size of the shelves, the depth, width, and the height. Keep in mind that most floor to ceiling shelving units span from floor to ceiling.
Consider taking a glance at the wall where the custom shelves are to be built, a plan can be built on the wall to accommodate everything from televisions to shelves and shelves of books. Once it has been determined which shelves are to go where use plywood to put in the bases for the shelves, attaching the vertical parts of the shelving to the studs within the walls, and use brackets for the horizontal shelves, as well as screws and wood glue to attach the shelves to the vertical brackets. If using the entire wall, some find it helpful to cover the wall with sheets of plywood �¾ inch thick to finish the look of built in shelves. Otherwise, the shelves will not look custom, complete and built into the design of the room.
The shelves can remain simple in design, or millwork in the way of baseboards, and crown moulding can be added to the top of the shelves to complete the design and comply with the built-in theme. Try to match the moulding with the existing millwork to complete the look.
After the shelves have been built is it important to prime the untreated wood to prepare it for the paint or stain that is going to be covering the shelving unit. Built in shelving is often painted to coordinate and match the wall color, with the crown moulding remain the same as the existing.
