Floating shelves for the boy

2x2 project number 2: getting the boy some shelves for even more flat surfaces for him to put his crap on.

I try not to be the parent always talking about how much better my kids have it than I did, but man oh man do my kids have it good. Without going into detail, let's just say our kids are not wanting for experiences or chances to explore what life has to offer. And the boy already has tons of trophies and medals to show for it. But along with the ridiculous amount of toys that show up any time the grandparents/uncles visit, all the trophies and medals are starting to clutter up his space. After stepping on some putting him to bed the other night, I thought it was time to make something to help get them out of the way for now.

Hence a pair of floating shelves, using all scrap from the media stand. 2x2's for the frames, boards for the actual shelves. Plus a few dowels to hang medals off of.

After the painters canvas I was pretty much down to some small scraps of the 2x2, so the two longest pieces dictated how long a pair of shelves would be. And I had scrap 1x12 and 1x10 to decide how deep they are, with leftover 1x3 to hang over the front. I was going to try and box the frames in completely but wasn't 100% sure the materials would be there. So I went simple instead. The frames would go into a stud, and I'd just lay the boards over them.

Getting a plan with lots of scrap to sort through.

I really need to clean at this point.

Kregged the 1x3 on with one edge needing a bit of a squeeze

Test fit from beneath

I added the dowels to one side of the bigger shelf to hang medals from, which had to get painted to match the rest of the frame. And since I was painting I lacquered the boards, leaving them natural.

Everything steady? Seems good...

Okay, think these will work for now.

This is my favorite part, obviously.

Getting these on was easy once we had decided how high and where to place them. They're each in one stud, with a drywall anchor too just in case. The shelf boards each got one screw in the back to keep it on the frame. Easy. I actually like how leaving them un-boxed turned out with the contrast and think these look good for now. They might not be permanent by any stretch but will do the job, and they'll be easy to replicate if he wants more later.


The last thing I want to do is just keep adding surface area for the boy to clutter up, but these are good for small stuff that's more for display vs playing with. Plus it's keeping his desk a lot clearer, just in time for school to start. Anyway, I think I've used up about all of my scrap now, so maybe I can actually get around to cleaning up which I keep putting off to do more of these small projects.