My wife, Anita wanted me to make some custom floating shelves for the dining room. We had some floating shelves from Ikea, but she wanted something that would match the coffee bar I made her.

Making the shelves were super easy. I grabbed 3/4″ pine and a couple of 2 x 2 select pine from Home Depot. I made the width of the shelves 3 1/8″ thick so that the 2 x 2 would fit inside nicely without getting jammed inside.

I used my miter jack to make sure the sides were a perfect 45 degrees so all the pieces would fit nicely together with no gaps. Most people make these shelves with simple butt joints on the ends, but I didn’t want end grain showing so I took the time to miter the corners.

After making sure everything fit together well, I glued and clamped the whole assembly together.  Anita then stained the shelves with apple cider vinegar, steel wool solution and gel stain to match the coffee bar.

When it came to install the shelves, I attached the 2 x 2 frame to the wall by securing it to the studs making sure it was level.

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I then slid the shelf into place and secured it in place from the bottom into the 2 x 2 frame.  I then did the exact same thing on the second shelf.

Here are the shelves installed with a bunch of Rae Dunn pottery on them. Anita was planning on writing messages on the chalk board wall to give it some pizzazz, but decided the wall is too dark and will eventually paint it back normal. What do you think? Should she give the chalk board wall a shot with fancy chalk board writing on it?

She painted the wall.