Learn how to build floating shelves using the Kreg Jig. A full tutorial for creating these easy shelves for your home!

One of the main projects that we’ve been working on is turning our second guest room into an industrial masculine office for Ben.

If you remember from my progress update, Ben had a small bookshelf that he was using for storage. The bookshelf was looking pretty full, and since then Ben’s accumulated more things in his office. The tiny shelf just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

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I’ve always loved the look of floating shelves and knew that I wanted to include them somewhere in our home. When Ben said he wanted some more storage in his office, I knew floating shelves would be the perfect solution!

To maximize the storage space, we decided that we would build the shelves from floor to ceiling on the entire wall. Large scale projects like that can sometimes be so expensive, but we managed to build our shelves for under $150!

How to Build Floating Shelves {Under $150}

Before we start, here’s a list of all the materials we used to build the shelves. I also included a list of the supplies we used. These supplies aren’t included in the total cost of the shelves since we already had them, but I included them for your reference.

Materials:

• [3] 1/8” thick 4’x8’ birch finishing plywood sheets
• [10] 8’ 2x4s (1.5”x3.5” nominal dimensions)
• [1] bottle of wood glue
• [2] packs of 2.5” Kreg pocket head screws
• [1] box of 3” drywall screws
• [1] box of 2.5” drywall screws
• [1] quart of Minwax tinted stain ‘Graphite’
• [1] quart of Minwax satin finish polyurethane

Supplies:

• Pencil
• Measuring tape
• Sharpie
• Combination square
• Level
• Miter Saw
• Drill
• Drill Bits
• Kreg K4 Jig
• Foam brushes
• Brad/Finishing nail gun
• Razor saw
• Block plane
• #0000 Steel Wool
• 220 Grit Sandpaper
• Touch up paint for wall

Before we started, we needed to figure out how many shelves would fit on the wall and how much material to buy. Ben sketched a layout on graph paper for our 8’ x 6’ wall came up with a basic design.

We knew that we wanted the shelves to take up the entire wall so we divided the space up and accounted for the thickness of the shelves. This left us with 6 shelves total, each 12 inches apart, with 9” below the bottom shelf and above the top shelf.

Ben has a 3D printer that he wanted to leave space for in the bottom left of the shelves, so we shortened the length of the bottom 3 shelves.

To keep everything looking balanced, we also shortened the 5^th shelf and created 2’ of space on the right-hand side. We decided that this would be a good place to put taller decorations and add some visual interest to the wall.

After we had a finalized layout, we used a measuring tape and sharpie to mark the location of the top and side of each shelf location on the wall.

Next, we marked the stud locations on the wall so we could reference them later.

Using the shelf location marks we made, we determined the length that each shelf was going to be, and cut two 2X4s for each of those shelf lengths. One of these was for the back board and the other was for the front board. We set aside the front boards for later.

Using the back boards, we started at the bottom and held each 2X4 up to the sharpie marks on the wall. We used the stud marks we made earlier as a guide to mark each stud location on the back board.

Next, we took each backboard down from the wall and drilled 3 pilot holes on the stud locations that we had just marked.

The goal was to drill holes that allowed the drywall screws to go directly into the studs in the wall for more stability. If you are building shelves that don’t have a stud behind them, you will need to use drywall anchors instead.

After we drilled pilot holes into each 2×4 back board, we anchored them to the wall using the 3” drywall screws. We made sure to line up the board with our sharpie marks on the wall and to level each board before screwing it into place.

Once all of the back boards were in place, we started installing the support pieces for each floating shelf.

These supports are necessary because the outer shelf covering of 1/8” plywood is weak on its own and needs internal support.

We decided that having a support piece located every 8” was adequate to support the plywood.

In order to figure out the number of support pieces that we needed, we measured the total length of all of our shelves and divided that number by 8.

Since we had decided earlier that the shelves would be 9” deep, we needed to cut our support pieces to 6” in length. This is because the back board (1.5”) and the front board (1.5”) for each shelf make up the other 3”.

Knowing how many support pieces we needed, as well as their length, we cut all of them at once out of 2x4s on the miter saw.

To attach the support pieces to the back boards, we decided to use the Kreg pocket hole system because it creates a very strong joint. We set the Kreg K4 jig for 1.5” thick wood following the directions.

The Kreg Jig seems like a complicated tool, but it comes with really easy instructions and only took us 5 min to setup. The best part about it is how quick and easy it makes cutting pocket holes. We were able to drill pocket holes in all 34 support pieces in 20 min!

• Related: How to Use a Kreg Jig

All we did was center the 2×4 support piece in the clamp, and then drilled using holes “A” and “C” on the jig according to the instructions.

When we were done, we ended up with 34 support pieces that looked like this:

We attached the support pieces to the back boards using the Kreg pocket head screws that are part of the Kreg system.

Each shelf got a support piece on either end and then additional pieces spaced every 8 inches in the middle.

We tried to line up the top and bottom of the support pieces so that they were flush with the top and bottom of the back boards. The closer you can get the edges to be flush, the less finishing work you will have later to make the plywood lay flat.

Our final step for completing the shelf frames was to install the front boards that we cut earlier. The front boards got two screws that went into each support piece. We started by marking a line ¾” in from the end of the board.

 Then we drilled two pilot holes on that line. The ¾” spacing from the end was necessary so that the screws would go directly into the center of the support pieces.

We attached the front boards using the 2.5” drywall screws.

Once the front board was held in place by the screws on either end, we needed to attach the front board to each center support piece.

Using the combination square, we drew a pencil line at the center of each board intersection.

Then we drilled two pilot holes through the front board but stopped right before the drill went into each support piece.

You don’t want to drill all the way through to the support piece because the screw won’t have anything to grab.

Then we just attached the front board to the support pieces with drywall screws.

We repeated this for all of the shelves and we were left with completed shelf frames.

Once we were done with the frames, we trimmed and flattened all of the joints with the block plane, razor saw, and sandpaper to make everything level.

Next, it was time to install the outside surfaces of the shelves. We rough-cut the plywood sheet into more manageable sized strips that were slightly larger than each shelf. Ours were about 12” deep and 8’ long.

Then we measured the length of each shelf, marked a line on the plywood, and used the razor saw to cut it.

Once the sheets were cut to size, we put wood glue on the top of each shelf frame and used the brad nailer to attach the plywood.

To get a perfect fit, we decided to cut the depth of the plywood once it was attached to the frame. Using the razor saw, we flush-cut each plywood sheet against the front board.

We did the same thing for the bottom of the shelf, using the razor saw again to get a flush cut.

For the sides and the front of each shelf, we used the same method as the top and bottom.

We cut each piece of plywood to the correct length and then flush cut the overhang.

We were careful when flush-cutting against plywood because we didn’t want to scratch the surface we had just installed. Some areas were easier to make flush using the block plane or sandpaper instead of the razor saw.

We chose to do the front pieces of plywood last because we wanted the front piece to cover all of the other plywood edges and create a more seamless look.

Once all the plywood was in place, we sanded everything down until there were no sharp edges and all of the plywood was smooth.

We used 220 grit sandpaper for a super smooth finish. After sanding, we wiped all of the shelves down with a damp cloth to get rid of all the dust.

Instead of painting the shelves, we decided to stain them so that we could still see the wood grain.

We tested a few stain samples but settled on a tinted stain called “Graphite” from Minwax. Tinted stains are great because they have a variety of different color options.

We chose a gray-tinted stain for Ben’s office to go with the blue walls and the gray-toned pallet wall.

Starting on the top shelf, we used a foam brush to apply a thin coat of the stain.

We worked on one face of a shelf at a time, coating the entire surface, and then wiping off the stain with a paper towel. This allowed enough time for the stain to soak into the wood without getting too dark.

When staining, it’s important to wipe off excess before it dries. This is why we worked in sections instead of staining all the shelves at once.

Once everything was dry, we very lightly sanded everything again in preparation for the polyurethane and wiped off all the dust with a damp cloth.

Using another foam brush, we applied the polyurethane in one thin coat over all the surfaces and let it dry for 3-4 hours.

After the first coat dried, we sanded all the surfaces lightly again, wiped off the dust, and applied a second coat of polyurethane. We then let all of the shelves dry completely overnight.

We chose a satin finish polyurethane because we didn’t want a high gloss look.

After the second coat had dried, there were some areas that were looking a little glossy. We used the #0000 steel wool to lightly buff some of the gloss away.

Finally, we touched up all the paint on the walls, put all of Ben’s things onto the shelves, and we were done!

I love how warm and inviting these shelves make the office feel!  The whole space has a much more built-in finished feel to it now.

Now that Ben has shelves covering the entire wall, there is so much more storage space. It feels a lot less cluttered because nothing is crammed together on his desk or small bookshelf anymore.  He finally has room for all of his books and can actually access them easily now.

The gray stain on the shelves goes so well with the pallet wall and the rest of the office décor. It really adds to that industrial masculine office feel that we were going for.

These shelves made such a difference in the office and I was surprised at how much storage we got for how much we spent on the materials. For under $150 we were able to create a completely custom unit. That’s less than buying a brand new bookshelf.

I hope that this inspires you to add some floating shelves in your own home. Please let me know in the comments if you try this out, I would LOVE to see a before and after!