The Best Way to Mount Floating Shelves Without a Disaster
Strong, straight and secure, how to mount floating shelves properly
You have picked the shelves, they look great leaning against the wall, and the drill is sitting there looking keen. This is the point where it either goes well or goes very badly, and the difference is almost never the shelf. It is the fixing, and whether it suits what is actually behind your paint.
Start with the wall, because the wall decides everything
A solid brick or masonry wall is the easy one. You want a masonry bit, a hammer drill setting, and a plug rated for the load. Drill it clean, blow the dust out of the hole, and the plug grips properly instead of spinning.
Plasterboard is where shelves come down. The board itself holds almost nothing, so you are either fixing into a timber stud behind it or you are using a fixing designed to spread the load on the back face of the sheet. Studs in an Australian house are usually at 450mm or 600mm centres, so once you find one you can measure along to the next. Knock along the wall and listen for the change from hollow to dull, then confirm it with a small pilot hole somewhere the shelf will cover.
The fixings, and what each one is actually for
- A plastic wall plug is a picture-frame fixing. It is not a shelf fixing and it will pull straight through plasterboard under load.
- A hollow wall anchor, the metal sleeve type, sets by collapsing behind the sheet and holds far more than a plug.
- A spring toggle or butterfly toggle opens out behind the board and spreads the load over a much bigger area. This is what you want for a shelf carrying real weight.
- A screw straight into a timber stud beats all of them, so use a stud wherever the shelf position lets you.
Floating shelves hide the hardware, which is the whole look, but the bracket inside is still doing the work. Match the bracket to the shelf material and the depth. A deep shelf puts far more leverage on the fixing than a shallow one carrying the same weight, because the load sits further out from the wall.
Level it before you drill, not after
Your eye is not a level and the ceiling line in most houses is not straight either. Sit a level on the bracket, check it both ways, and mark your holes with masking tape on the wall so you can shuffle the spacing before anything permanent happens.
Do not overload it
If a bracket is rated for a weight, that is the number. Load it lightly first, put your hand on the front edge and push down. Any give or flex and it comes off the wall and gets rethought, which is a much better afternoon than picking your mugs up off the floor.
Shop related products
- Supercraft Level Set of 2. Covers the long run and the short check in one go.
- Supercraft Torpedo Level. Short enough to sit on a single bracket.
- Combination Square with Level, 300mm. For marking square off a wall or an edge.
- Sutton Phillips PH2 Screwdriver Bits, 50mm 2 pack. The bit most bracket screws want.
Browse more in fasteners and fixings and hand tools. Hollow wall anchors and spring toggles are on the shelf in a range of sizes, so bring the bracket in and we will match the fixing to it.
Read next
- How to hang a heavy mirror without wrecking the wall
- How to Hang Shelves in a Rental Without Losing Your Bond
- How to use construction adhesive so the fix holds
Get the fixing right and the shelf is boring forever, which is exactly what you want from a shelf.
Cheers,
Candeece
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