DIY floating shelves

[PHAT]

We are trying to finish up the loose ends of a kitchen reno.  We have one empty wall above the counter where we would like to put one or two live edge shelves.  Coincidentally a large tree fell down in the woods behind our house a while back, and our very generous neighbour has agreed to help us turn them into shelves (he has a wood mill and a large planer).  If I recall correctly, it was a poplar tree, so probably not the ideal wood for floating shelves, but it's free wood, so we will give it a try!  I believe the wood has been roughly cut and has been drying in his garage for about a year now, and he says it's time to come and pick our pieces!

The space we have is roughly 42" wide.  We are thinking approx 12" shelves, in order to keep the open-concept of the kitchen and not block the lines of sight, while still having a useful-sized shelf for putting things on.  So what qualities should I be looking for in the rough pieces?  How thick should we be making the shelves?

I don't have a plan for brackets yet, but I assume we will need something sturdy.  Invisible would be sweet, but something sleek but rustic would fit well in our house.  I was planning on asking my dad to possibly weld us up something if we can't find something appropriate commercially.

[Telecaster]

Floating shelves are great.    There are a number of ways you can do it.  The easiest way is to simply buy the hardware.  The next is some variation of driving a partially threaded rod into the stud (maybe using a threaded insert in the stud) or driving a bolt into the stud and then nip the head off.

The thickness is up to you.  Normal shelf thickness is strong enough.   But since you have nice live edge wood you might want to go thicker to show off the material. 

Trick is to drill the holes straight.  You may need a dowling jig or some such. 

[neo von retorch]

Most of your questions are about personal taste, unless you drill into it for hidden supports. Then you might want 1.5" or thicker.

Here's a shelf I made for my office. My only regret was I didn't need quite as big of a notch as I thought. This was ~3+ years ago and I think maybe I didn't quite account correctly for the pipe end not threading all the way - it stops before I expected. But otherwise this was a super easy way to do it. I hand planed this ~1-1.25" piece of walnut, lightly sanded the live edge part, oiled it, and threw the hardware on the wall. Simple pipe hardware from a big box hardware store.

Used 16" studs for placement - I think the shelf is about 24" then. Being a man-child, it holds my LEGO Technic car carrier.

[nereo]

  If I recall correctly, it was a poplar tree, so probably not the ideal wood for floating shelves, but it's free wood, so we will give it a try!  I believe the wood has been roughly cut and has been drying in his garage for about a year now, and he says it's time to come and pick our pieces!

 So what qualities should I be looking for in the rough pieces?  How thick should we be making the shelves?

I don't have a plan for brackets yet, but I assume we will need something sturdy.  Invisible would be sweet, but something sleek but rustic would fit well in our house.  I was planning on asking my dad to possibly weld us up something if we can't find something appropriate commercially.

Poplar is used in kitchens all the time, though it’s often painted because it sands very well but lacks the warmth or impressive figure of a lot of the other popular wood.  But I work with it on occasion and it’s a fine one to use.

For brackets you can do floating easily enough - there are plenty of floating brackets online which basically involve drilling a hole in the back of the wood for a steel rod and then (optional) using a table-saw or router to cut a shallow groove in the back so the wood sits flush.  Here’s one example:


…but, lately I’ve come to embrace the look of the mounting hardware and incorporate that into the aesthetic. On a previous home I used these “J” style oversized brackets to hold 1.5” thick maple shelves.  I cut a 1/4” thick groove into the back so the shelf sat flush to the wall.  It was definitely a focal point of our living room. 
https://csonkascustomrustics.com/listing/701497391/heavy-duty-shelf-bracket-shelf-bracket-j

I’ve used that company for several simple table legs and if you like the simple, rustic meets industrial look they are great. Others may hate that style.

[sonofsven]

As others have said, look online for supports.
In my opinion, 1" thick, known as "5/4" (five quarter) is the ideal thickness.
Solid, without being "chunky".

[lthenderson]

I believe the wood has been roughly cut and has been drying in his garage for about a year now, and he says it's time to come and pick our pieces!

Your neighbor may be jumping the gun a bit. The rule of thumb for air drying wood is one year for each inch of thickness. So assuming they are two or three inches thick, they need two or three years to fully airdry. This can of course lead to warping, checking and premature finish failures if one used them too early.

For brackets, I've always used something similar to what I linked below. They will span a joist bay which creates a solid support. But to do a great installation job, one needs a long auger drill bit and a router to hide the flange. But I've seen plenty just screw them to a wall and set the board on top.

https://www.amazon.com/BATODA-Floating-Supports-Brackets-Included/dp/B0B5ZK4LL6/

[joenorm]

These are the ones I use

https://hovrbracketsystem.com/?_atid=JtSPs0yV8J5Ni65tuxKBHY8zj9pjbt

[PHAT]

Your neighbor may be jumping the gun a bit. The rule of thumb for air drying wood is one year for each inch of thickness. So assuming they are two or three inches thick, they need two or three years to fully airdry. This can of course lead to warping, checking and premature finish failures if one used them too early.


[/quote]
Thanks for the tip on this.  He used to run a saw mill, so I do have a decent amount of trust in him to know when it's ready.  I'm not sure if he meant its ready to work with, as much as he wants to know which pieces we want, so he can move the rest out of the way and get his garage back.  If we keep it for another year or two before the work gets done, I think that's fine - we haven't had shelves there since we moved in, so no rush!  I'm assuming I want pieces that are quite a bit thicker than the final thickness, to allow for plenty of planing and sanding, so I'll probably try to grab something on the thicker side if they look nice.

[nereo]

Echoing sonofsven - for kitchen shelves 42” long and 10-12” deep I would personally go for a finished thickness of 1”-1.25” (standard shelving from big box stores are almost always 3/4”). Go much thicker and they are going to look massive.

So long as the boards are relatively flat planning and sanding will only reduce the thickness by about 1/4” to 3/8”. Typically I do 2-3 passed on each side that are 1/16”. Sanding a freshly planed board will remove less than 1/16”.

Most sawyers expect their stock will be finished to standard dimensions (eg 3/4”, 1”, 1.5”) and will rough cut boards to allow for this without wasting material.

[neo von retorch]

Keep in mind for those hidden floating brackets they recommend 1.7" thickness.