FLOATING SHELVES

HIDDEN HARDWARE FOR A CLEAN LOOK

- MIKE BERNER

If you've been gathering inspiration for a kitchen remodel, there's no doubt you've seen kitchens with open shelves. It's a popular look since they make the room feel bigger and more open. These shelves can be installed in several ways, and after some research and testing, I found a slick system for adding open shelving that leaves no hardware in sight, giving the shelves a "floating" look. 

1 DETERMINE THE SHELF PLACEMENT 

I used painter's tape to mark the locations of the shelves. Once I was satisfied with the layout, I was able to take shelf measurements and mark stud locations to determine the length of each mounting bracket.

MOUNTING REQUIREMENTS

Each mounting bracket needs to be attached to two studs and should be cut no less than half the shelf length, with a minimum bracket length of 18 in.

2 CUT THE SHELF PARTS

Each shelf has three parts: a top, a bottom and a filler. With the shelf lengths determined, rip the tops and bottoms for each shelf to 10-1/4 in. (1/4 in. wider than their final width). Rip the fillers 1 in. narrower than the tops and bottoms. Then cut the shelves slightly longer than their final dimension.

3 CUT THE RABBETS

I cut a 1-in. x 3/8-in.-deep rabbet along the edges of the top and bottom shelf parts (see Figure A). Because the first cut is made with the board on edge, I used a tall featherboard to push the plywood against the fence as I fed the boards through the saw blade. I made all the cuts this way, then adjusted the fence and blade to finish the rabbet with the board flat on the table.

4 ADD THE FILLER PIECES