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One of the methods of decorating a room is the use of shelves. But they are not just a decoration item. Much more often they are functional. They hang shelves on the wall, put them on the floor, some are hung from the ceiling or beams. But best of all, they are easy to make yourself, with your own hands.
Types of shelves in the house
At the place of installation, the shelves are wall-mounted, floor-mounted and suspended. If the floor shelf has a large height – from a meter and above it is often called a rack. A few words about hanging ones: usually these are decorative structures that hang on a pipe or a specially driven bracket. This option is popular in those rooms where heating pipes run under the ceiling: they just ask to be hung on something. Shelves are hung on the pipe in the kitchen and in the bathroom: it is convenient there.
They are made of wood, plywood, laminated chipboard, fiberboard, there are glass shelves. The same materials are used as racks, but they are also made of metal, plastics and other absolutely incredible things – for example, pipes or bottles.
In living rooms, it is not so important what material the shelf is made of. It is important that its design is in the same style as the interior. Even the functionality is not always important: some play an exclusively decorative role. On them, if there is something, then one or two items. Their role is to give the interior of the home a special style and color.
If we talk about shelves in technical rooms – the kitchen and the bathroom, in particular, then practicality requirements are added to aesthetic considerations almost everywhere. Even decorative shelves in the kitchen should be washed well. For shelves in the bathroom, in general, the requirements are high: periodically there is very high humidity and materials are required that tolerate it without any harm. There aren’t many of them. It is plastic and stainless steel. They also make bathroom shelves from MDF, but they are normally used with good ventilation in the bathroom.
Shelves on the wall
In any room on the wall there are places where you just need to hang something. After all, most modern furniture occupies only the lower part – sofas, tables, couches. The upper part remains empty and dissonance arises: an overloaded lower part of the room and a half-empty or completely empty upper part. These voids on the walls are organically filled with shelves.
Structurally, most of the shelves consist of the actual shelves and jumpers. But these components are combined in such a number of options that it is impossible to count. A simple design is good: you can make any shelves with your own hands. Moreover, these products can be the first self-made things. It’s really simple.
How and what to mount
It is not in vain that we start with fasteners. The design of the shelf on the wall largely depends on the type of fastening. Or maybe vice versa. Looking from what to dance …
Traditional loops
There is a traditional way – on loops. It is suitable for wood and fiberboard, any other material that is thick enough to attach. Screwed on with screws on the sides. Then, between the centers of the holes of the loops, the distance is measured, deposited on the wall (watch for horizontality). At the marked points, holes are drilled for the dowel, the dowel is inserted and the dowel-nail with a small cap is screwed into it, which enters the loop or bracket (the pin is slightly bent upwards). Then a shelf is hung on them.
Not all materials can be drilled. For example, glass shelves. You definitely can’t screw anything into them. Mounts for glass shelves are special: they consist of two parts, between which glass is inserted. Often, elastic spacers are installed between the holders. The bottom fastener usually has a small clamping screw for fixing.
Fasteners for glass shelves
The most popular mount for glass shelves is called “pelican” – for its peculiar shape. It looks good and is available in different colors. The thickness of the glass that it can hold is from 8 to 34 mm. You can insert into it not only glass, but also any other material of this thickness. It just looks cool with glass.
It is easy to make glass shelves on the wall with it: buy a mount, order pieces of glass with processed edges of the right size and shape in the glass workshop (or cut it yourself if you know how). What remains is the actual assembly:
- Attach the “pelicans” to the wall. Two dowels. The case is collapsible – the decorative trim is removed, and there are two holes in the mounting plate. One in the case above, the second – below. Fixed, installed in place a decorative overlay.
- Inserted glass.
- Turned the screw. All.
There are other forms of similar fasteners. The photo below is a few of them.
Decorative brackets
Another type of fastening is brackets. They are reliable, some are decorative, so much so that they themselves are an ornament.
Concealed installation – shelves without support
And the most amazing device for secret mounting. It makes it possible to hide fasteners. At the end, a seat is cut out for the pin and the body of the holder and the shelf is simply put on it.
As you can see, even a simple board or a piece of glass on such mounts is already not bad. But there is still a sea of all sorts of ideas.
Read more about how you can refurbish old furniture here.
Bookshelves
The requirements for strength are imposed on bookshelves: they hold significant weight. Therefore, the fastening and materials and design must be reliable. Traditionally, book shelves are made of wood, laminated or veneered fiberboard. And then fiberboard with a long span (more than 90 cm) sags over the years.
When planning shelves on the walls for books according to your own dimensions, keep in mind that the distance between the supports should not be more than 90 cm. Then even when fully loaded it will not bend. And there are two types and varieties of shelves: wall and floor. Both of them can be angular.
In the simplest case, this is a board fixed in one of the ways. Some options, especially when presented correctly, look very good.
And in the presence of imagination, several planks turn into a very interesting thing, which can even be the main element of decor. Ideas for self-production are collected in the photo gallery.
Floor bookshelves can be loaded more seriously. Here the forms are different: there are racks to which shelves are attached. The highlight can be a broken or unusual line of shelves as well as interesting racks.
Read about the manufacture of fountains (both small indoor ones and more solid ones for a summer cottage, backyard or garden plot) here.
Suspended
Not very numerous, but original type. The most important thing is that you can do it easily: a few planks, four ropes or two belts and you can get to work.
To the nursery
While the child is very small, I want functional shelves, but with children’s drawings. But where can you get these? Make it yourself. Any shelf of the configuration you like can be pasted over with non-woven wallpaper or thick wrapping paper (glued on PVA). After drying, coat twice with water-based varnish. Such shelves can be washed, but the most interesting thing is that the shelf can change along with the child. Rip off the old decor, glue the new one. The idea is simple, it works perfectly.
For children, the shelves are not very different in design. If we talk about floor or shelving, then they must be strong: taking into account the fact that older children will definitely want to climb on them. Therefore, often even those shelves that are on the floor are attached additionally to the wall: so that they do not collapse and crush young climbers. Based on these considerations, they are not made high: even if they fall, it’s not scary.
The shelves in the children’s room also differ in color – they are brighter, they can be made in the form of letters, boxes for toys can be installed in them: it’s easier to keep them in order. In general, functionality and safety should be combined.
Read about the design of the children’s room here.
Shelves and shelves for the kitchen
Whatever you say, but in the kitchen the main thing is functionality. There is not much free space even on the walls: lockers take up a large area. Therefore, one of the tasks is to maximize the use of free space. There are interesting ideas for small or even very small gaps between the wall and the refrigerator or other appliances. Strictly in size, you can make a poke on wheels, which leaves and completely hides there. It is wide and narrow (see photo).
There are other interesting ideas about saving space. If a sink or a hundred are standing near the window, you can take the sidewalls. There is an interesting hanging option – a lattice on chains, to which all utensils are hooked. But such a shelf is possible if the desktop is not against the wall. Another option to save space is if the kitchen-dining room is zoned with a counter, you can also make a shelf above it, which will be partially suspended. One part of it rests on the wall, the second – on the counter or “hangs” on the ceiling.
Read about how to arrange kitchen furniture here.
Hanging the entire wall above the desktop with lockers is not the best way out. They look heavy. You can solve the problem with glass doors, but not everyone likes it. The way out is to make open shelves between the cabinets. They will give more lightness to the interior and the work area will not put pressure on the rest of the space.
Decorative and original
Often, shelves on the wall play an exclusively decorative role. They are designed to attract attention and this goal is achieved by an unusual shape, contrasting with the walls, color. You can’t put much on it: one or two little things, but how interesting they are.
Another interesting topic is glass shelves. Just one glass is not very interesting. Its combination with wood and steel is more attractive. The effects are sometimes unexpected. Glass is assembled on guides: the material is fragile and heavy, and it must be held. It is under the power of steel.
In fact, these systems are designed to create interiors of shops, but they also look stylish in a modern or loft-style apartment.
What shelves are made of. Even from pipes. Metal and plastic. Do you have any left over from the repair? Use in business, and get a designer thing, which is interesting, collected from the trash.
There are samples that are simply amazing. Well, how could you come up with something like that?
Shelf drawings
Basically, the designs are simple: you look and roughly imagine how to do it. For those who want to make shelves with their own hands, here are a few drawings. Having them on hand, you can easily make the required changes in size. Just remember that from fiberboard with a thickness of 16-18 mm, the span between the supports should be no more than a meter, and better – 90 cm. Otherwise, there will be a deflection. With plywood, the situation is about the same.
The only thing that may not be clear is how to assemble some nodes. Let us explain in one diagram, the rest of the assembly is similar. All connections are made at the corners. To make the design reliable, shelves are cut out whole, and jumpers are attached to them at the corners.
Corners are installed from below, two for each connection from the right and left. They are made from metal or plastic. If the load is planned to be significant, put metal, if the shelves are decorative – you can use plastic furniture.
Now you can make your favorite shelves on the wall with your own hands (and floor ones too).