Finished shelves
Another long post, but I’d never done this before, so learnt loads and I hope these tips will be useful. I’d also like to reassure the shelving newbie that this really isn’t that hard, and can be done without fancy power tools apart from a decent drill (which everybody really ought to have, so useful). There may well be a better handtool for this than a hacksaw, but it worked great for me, and my bigger saw turned out to be useless so we made do.
So, if you’ve been following me on twitter then you may noticed my manic weekend of shelving, curtain rails and general DIY. Since my parents were up for a few days, I used the extra pairs of hands to help me put up some much needed shelving in the alcoves on either side of the living room fireplace. In usual Fixing It Up fashion, this was a slightly trial and error process.
Buying timber
First job was to measure the space and calculate the size of shelves needed. I did this on my own, which was a bit tricky, trying to both keep the measuring tape in line and balance a spirit level. I recommend getting some help with this. Unless your alcoves are miraculously straight, I suggest measuring the front and back of the space, and the top and the bottom. Fortunately mine were only a few millimetres out so I just went somewhere in the middle, thinking I could plane off any extra wood.
I went into Whitten Timber to have a look what wood would best match the floorboards and decor in the room. Their pineboard was both the cheapest and best option, given the size it needed to be. They cut the wood to the measurements I gave them and delivered the board, along with the lengths of wood for battening (the wood pieces that hold the shelves up). Great service. I also have all the offcuts, which I’m sure will come in handy.
Putting up the shelving
Here is our first finished shelf:
Completed shelf; note 4 screws back, 2 each side and tapered edges on side battens.
We used battens on both sides AND at the back. For some situations this might not be necessary, but we knew that for the left alcove one side was going into plasterboard, so might not hold up too well. Plus, I was going to be putting heavy books and boxes on the shelves, and wanted to prevent them bowing in the middle over time.
Our process for each shelf was as follows:
1. PLANE THE BOARD
We discovered that one alcove had a slight bulge, which meant that the boards didn’t quite fit all the way in. We needed to lose some of the length off part of one end. I tried a rasping plane, a regular planer, sandpaper, files, but these were all useless against the grain of the pineboard ends. We were most successful just hacksawing it off and then smoothing with sandpaper.
2. CUT THE BATTENS
Cutting the battens
First we measured the back wall length and then cut a batten to that length (again, just using the hacksaw, very easy). We then laid that length against the shelving board, held the remaining batten wood against that and marked off the point where it came to the end of the shelf. Much easier than doing lots of measuring with the tape and introducing errors that way. At the cut point, I did a rough 45 degree cut backwards to get the tapered edge which looks better.
These back and side battens then became our reference for marking up battens for the rest of the shelves, and I was able to fairly quickly prepare the rest of the required pieces (more hacksaw!). My 45 degree cutting was mostly by eye, but it looks absolutely fine.
3. DRILL HOLES IN BATTENS
Drilling the batten holes
We figured that two holes on each side, and four on the back would be plenty. We’d taken advice at the DIY shop that 2inch screws would be fine. And that we could use a 5mm wood drillbit for this. We marked up the reference battens at even points, making sure the back one had two screws fairly close to the end, and then drilled through. Now, I don’t have a proper work bench, so we were a bit makeshift, using the offcuts to create a platform for drilling into. But it was safe, didn’t move about, and prevented damage to the floor.
We then used the hole positions in the reference battens to mark up the rest, and drilled all of those.
The next step is to use a countersink so that the screw head doesn’t stick out from the wood. There is a neat video about how to do this here. It’s pretty straightforward. Again, our slightly amateur trial and error efforts meant our countersinking was fairly uneven, but it looks absolutely fine so don’t worry too much about getting this perfect (life is short, you know).
4. PUT UP THE SHELVES
Marking up drill holes for back batten. Newspaper is our feeble attempt to prevent brick dust getting on painted mouldings.
Here’s what we did. First we put the back batten against the wall where I wanted the bottom shelf to be, and put a spirit level on top to keep it straight. When it was in the right place, we poked through the ready drilled holes with a bradawl and made as big a hole as possible to mark the right position and also provide a guide hole for the drill.
Then, removing the batten, we used a 6mm masonry drill bit and drilled the holes in the wall, using the hammer function on the drill. Take care here not to drill too far into the wall, it only needs to go just far enough to fit the rawlplug in. Then push raw plugs at the correct size (they are clearly marked) for the screws you are using into each hole.
Put the batten back in place, and screw through the holes into the rawlplugs until nice and tight. First batten done!
Back batten fixed, holes and plugs ready for side batten
We then put each side batten up against the back batten, using the spirit level again, and marked out the holes for these in the same way, repeating the whole process until we had all battens in place. Then we just popped the shelf on top. Success!
One exception – when we were drilling into plasterboard on one side. Then you may need to use special plasterboard plugs which butterfly out after being pushed through and secure themselves behind the board. This seems to hold pretty well.
Then it’s basically repeat process until you run out of room, or ladder. Nothing quite so satisfying as being able to finally unpack your books, believe me.
Update: my dad says I should point out how useless my original cheapish drill bits were. We had to go out and buy some decent ones, which made all the difference.
Fixing It Up 