Mounting a Custom Shelf

[msilenus]

Hi all,

We have a niche in one of our walls and want to install custom-cut glass to make shelving.  Imagine if you took a closet, ripped the doors off, and lifted it five feet into the air --this is the sort of space I want to put the shelf in.  (Picture attached.)  I've already ordered a piece of tempered glass to try out.  The plan is to mount pieces in the opposing walls of the niche, and rest the glass on those.  Max weight will be 60 lbs including shelf plus bric a brac.

Using a piece of wood on both sides (painted to match the drywall) should look sort of okay, and be easy on the glass.  However: I'm going to have a hard time matching because the paint is 8 years old, and getting the mounting perfectly square plumb and level is going to be challenging for me.  So I'm looking for other options. 

Any suggestions for mounting strategies that might be better suited here?

Thanks!

[zolotiyeruki]

Can you post a picture of the nook where this will go? It kind of sounds like you have a pass-through or half wall that you want to put this shelf on, but I'm not sure if I'm understanding correctly.

[msilenus]

Can you post a picture of the nook where this will go? It kind of sounds like you have a pass-through or half wall that you want to put this shelf on, but I'm not sure if I'm understanding correctly.

Thanks for the question.  I updated the original post with a picture and some more verbiage to clear that up.  Basically, the project is like mounting a shelf into the opposing walls of a closet.

[gooki]

Don't do the wood. You can get nice stainless steel brackets made for holding glass shelves cheap. Try eBay if you can't find the locally.

[BlueHouse]

Paint the entire inside of the niche with white or a semi gloss paint, trim the outside frame to match the rest of the trim in the house and paint that the same semi gloss. If you leave everything dry-wallish, it will look unfinished.

Personally, I don't like glass shelves because they are not functional AND if the goal is to display bric-a-brac, they don't show things off as well as white. So I would do wood boards all across, painted semi gloss white. If you do white boards, then I would paint the back of the niche a contrast color slightly darker than the walls but in the same color family

[fullpampers]

Once the shelf is installed, put some molding around the niche to hide the mounting brackets maybe?

[zolotiyeruki]

I likewise would not try to paint the trim to match the wall.  I'd use some moulding, and paint it the same color as the trim in the rest of the house.  I think BlueHouse is spot on with the suggestion to trim out the opening itself.