DIY Floating Corner Shelves.

One of our most pinned and re-posted projects are the corner shelves we installed in my son’s room.
A linen closet on the other side of this wall is the reason there is this awkward little nook.
We were able to turn this annoying detail in to one of the best additions in the room with some DIY corner shelves.

I almost wish they would have just made the linen closet bigger on the other side of the wall in order to keep the whole wall in this room flush.  There’s just barely enough room for a twin sized bed.  If I wanted to put a night stand next to the bed it would be floating in the middle of the room in front of that nook.  Not exactly ideal.
My solution…when life gives you lemons make floating shelves.

Making them is not as difficult as one might think.  The wonderful carpenter I found on HomeAdvisor (who also installed the wall planks) whipped these up in no time.  First, put up two pieces of 1×1 (which will be the main support for the shelves).  Make sure to nail directly in to the studs behind the wall.

 Next, cut a board so it aligns with your two walls.  Nail directly in to the top of the board so it hits the 1×1 support underneath.

 

 For the bottom of the shelf, cut an identical board as the top one and nail through the board directly in to the underside of the 1×1.

 Measure a face board that will cover the gap and nail to the top and the bottom boards.

 As before, make sure you are nailing the face board in to the top and bottom boards.

 I filled all the nails holes with stainable wood filler.  It you look closely you can probably see where the wood filler is.  Because the wood filler wasn’t the same color as the boards it also stained up differently.  In hindsight I wish I would have not filled the nail holes and just left the holes undone for a more rustic look.

 I used Frog Tape to protect the wall which worked great on top but staining the underneath was a different story.  Applying the stain without having it drip was really tricky.  Save yourself from having to do paint touch up and use two rows of tape or wider tape when staining the underneath.

Now that the shelves are up I really love the odd little nook.
And that, my friends, is how we turn lemons in to lemonade (or rather floating corner shelves).

The shelves are going to provide some much needed storage for that little bedroom.

See the whole room reveal here.