DIY Floating Gallery Shelves

Well, hi everyone!

I’ve been eyeing my office lately and suddenly realized how out of date my old gallery wall was with the black and white photos of Paris (hello, 2004).  And, it’s been that way for about 6 years, so it’s time for makeover.  I had been eyeing all of the great photos on Pinterest featuring gallery walls of floating shelves.  Floating shelves = less holes in the wall.  And that’s a good thing.  Not to mention it appeals to the side of my brain that always wants to change things up 😉

Reasons I Made My Own Shelves

1. I knew I wouldn’t find what I wanted in a store or on a website;

2. It would be cheaper to DIY; and,

3. I knew I could make them and do it well (self diagnosed nit-picker).

I found Ana White’s tutorial for her $10 shelves and basically followed her instructions.  At Haven, I saw the Kreg guys show off the same nifty jig that makes pocket holes that Ana uses.

You can see the rest of my office here.

You might be wondering how wide they are?  They are a whopping six feet wide!  And they are super heavy, I won’t lie. Carrying the wood out of Home Depot I thought, “maybe I am overdoing this?” But nope.  I wanted them really wide so that I had a lot of options for putting art on the wall.  I wanted them to be scale to the other furniture in my room.  My desk is actually a dining room table, and that bookcase you see below (similar) the shelves is pretty wide.

Supplies

• Wood cut to size – I used poplar wood from Home Depot
• Kreg Jig – also found at Home Depot
• Drill (if you don’t have a good drill, NOW is the time to get one)
• Drill Bits
• Wood screws
• Wood glue – always ALWAYS use wood glue in addition to screwing/nailing (see Dad, I was paying attention 😉
• Clamps
• Primer and paint – see below

As for primer and paint.  I used no less than 5 different products, ahem leftover of old white primer and paint.  So I spent no money on primer/paint.  And guess what, no one will every know 🙂  If I would have, I would have gone straight to Behr primer and paint in one combo.  It has a thicker substance than regular paint, but so worth it and it looks so nice going on.

If you are short on time, and would rather purchase shelves like these, check out these beauties.

I hope you like my shelves!  I am in love with how they look.  I feel like they were the freshness that this room needed 😉