How to Build Floating shelf

To get started, go ahead and grab the 1/2-in birch ply or maple and use your table saw with a good steady fence to rip 3 and 1/2 in strips. This will keep the process nice, consistent, and leveled. [Music] Using a miter saw, let's create the front of the piece to have two 45° angles, equal sides. And then the sides will have one 45° angle [Music] each. Trim 90° one of the 45° pieces that are on the sides. Total length should go up to 9 and 12 [Music] in. Again, using your table saw, let's create the top and bottom pieces. They're going to be 9 in wide. Again, a good steady fence on your table saw works magic. Once you created the top and bottom 9-in wide pieces, let's go ahead and trim them to size. Uh, again, a miter saw is going to be very helpful for this. My I did it to be about 30 and 1/8 in to be [Music] exact. All right, here's the moment of truth. Honestly, glue-ups are some of the most stressful processes out there. We're going to use all wood, all glue. We're not going to use any kind of nails. Feel free, if you don't feel comfortable doing that, using a few brad nails. Um, brad nails are the skinny one. They don't have a cap to them. They're nice and concealed. And in the end, you can just put a couple of dabs of wood filler and sand it all down. Um, the reason I didn't go with the brad nail in this particular situation is I got rid of my brad nail gun and now I kind of regret it. But not to stress, this process went along just fine. [Music] When it comes to start clamping all the things, shy away from tightening your pieces way too hard. Squeezing too tight will deprive all the pieces of glue. Squeezing too little would prevent all the pieces from joining. Find a good between them. For the back piece, it's very important you leave a/2 in gap. This section is going to really house the French cleat or at least half of the French cleat. Any gap larger or smaller is really going to make your shelf not be flush with the wall. Now, the moment of truth. We're going to do the top and bottom pieces. A nice snug fit. Nothing goes better. And now the bottom piece. Same thing when it comes to the glue up. Don't squeeze too hard, just enough. Now the French cleat. The whole idea behind hanging French cleat is that you have two 45° angles that are opposite of each other. So take some scrap wood and rip a few pieces down that are roughly 2 and 1/2 to 3 in long at a 45° angle. If your top and bottom pieces are not equal in width, you more than welcome to use a trim piece like I did right here. This kind of helped me create the gap much [Music] easier. Use wood filler and a putty knife to patch up all the exposed plywood. Let it dry and then we're going to get to sanding. Sand all the dried wood filler down to about 150 to 180 grit. Be careful not to sand too little or too much as if you will see all the imperfections once the paint goes [Music] on. Now, let's get to painting. As you can see, I have some gray primer. That's something I was experimenting with that was claimed to be a wood filler, but it did not do as well of a job as I thought it would. When it comes to painting, go ahead and just get yourself some either a lacquer paint or b uh milk paint. Both will do a great job that you won't really have to use any kind of primer for. Attach the French cleat to one side. Use some glue and some screws to attach it. And then the other opposite end, flip it upside down and hang it to the studs of your wall. Lift the shelf and slide it right down into place. Nice and snug.