Easy DIY Floating Shelves we built for FREE!

YOU WILL LOVE THESE EASY DIY FLOATING SHELVES! YOU MOST LIKELY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR THIS PROJECT ALREADY, IF NOT, THE MATERIAL LIST IS SHORT.

This project was 100% free for us. If you know us, you know that most of our projects stem from something we either found for incredibly cheap, at a second-hand store or from something we found in the garbage.

Our reasoning behind this is because we live off one income. Greg is the only one of us that works outside the home. I am a full-time stay-at-home mom, and this is the way we like it! We have prayed on numerous occasions to see if it was the right time for me to return to work, and so far each time God has said no.

Greg and I made the decision that we would only use our extra income to pay for home decor and renovations. This means, zero of Greg's income goes towards anything that you see on the blog. We pay for our renovations solely by doing odd jobs, which mostly consist of selling our own belongings on second-hand websites. Whether it's something we are no longer using or a piece of furniture we have refinished, we only use this money for home projects.

This budget requires us to get creative. For this project, we used only materials we already owned. If you are like us and have extra scraps of wood hanging around and already own your own tools, then chances are you can create similar shelves for free as well.

If not, this is still a fairly inexpensive project to undertake.

Step 1: Find Studs and Measure Wall for DIY floating shelves

First I found the middle of my wall and marked it, writing the word middle on my levelled line. Next, I found the studs using my stud finder. I marked these out with my pencil from the top of the wall to the top of my wainscotting.

Next, I measured and marked out my spacing. I chose to leave 12-inch spacing, measuring from the top of one shelf to the bottom of the next. Your spacing and measurements will depend on where you are placing them.

Step 2: Cut boards to size

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Once you have determined the spacing and sizing of your boards and the wall you would like your floating shelves on, cut your boards to size.

If you do not have your own saw you can always buy pre-cut wood, or get your local hardware store to cut the boards to your desired sizing.

Greg found this wood at the end of someone's driveway. They no longer wanted it, so he snatched it up for free! We then sanded and cut our boards to size.

Step 3: Measure and mark boards for DIY floating shelves

Once your boards are cut to size find and mark the middle of each board. Making sure your marking is clearly labelled as "middle".

Next, match the line on your board labelled 'middle' with the line on your wall labelled 'middle'. Now you can transfer over your stud marks onto your board, these will be where you drill your holes.

Step 4: Drill pocket holes in the shelving boards

Now that you have your studs marked out on your board you can drill your holes.

We used our mini Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig. It is the most basic product they sell and it's good for simple projects like this one.

Step 5: Attach shelving to the wall

Now we attached our boards to the wall, lining up our shelves with the middle line and setting a level on top. We used #9x3" screws to attach our boards to the studs.

I knew I would be using my shelves to display my plants so I added a clear coat to them, to prevent water stains. This part is up to you, you can stain, paint of wax your shelves to get the look you want.

STEP 6: Style your DIY floating shelves

Have fun! These shelves are so versatile, they can go anywhere in your home, try the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. If you are looking to use them to display plants like I did find the brightest spot in the house with indirect sunlight.

As I mentioned before, this project was 100% free for us because we used the materials we already had. If this is not the case for you, I have listed some of the products we used so you can achieve a similar look.

If you DIY these floating shelves in your home I would love to see them. You can tag us on Instagram @iekelroadhome

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