INSTALL A FLOATING MANTLE SHELF

Wood In Distress

Giving a distressed texture to the shelf not only imparts an interesting weathered and aged appearance to the wood, but it makes it easier to close the seams and achieve the convincing look of a solid wood beam. We use a variety of tools—from hex nuts and tow chains to drillmounted flap wheels—to apply lots of dents, dings and relief to the shelf surface, all of which will absorb wood stain at different rates for interesting visual contrast. Since we’re unconcerned about having perfect edges on a shelf of this style, we hammer or round off the edges with a blunt instrument, which closes the seams at the edge to look like uninterrupted wood grain. Treat all visible edges in this fashion to create the look of an aged beam of timber.

Pro Tip: Any small gaps or open seams at the joints can be sealed with wood filler before staining, but the filler absorbs stain at a different rate than the surrounding wood, which can create a mismatch in color. For this reason, it’s a good idea to use a wood filler tinted closely to the color of stain you plan to apply to the shelf.

Interior Bracket

The internal bracket that supports the hollow shelf is a ladder-shaped structure that will be anchored to the wall studs using 5- or 6-in. structural screws. For a 4x8 or 4x10 shelf, the bracket is made from 2x2 material. For a 6x10 shelf, a similar bracket can be built from 2x4 boards.

The number of cross-members will depend on the shelf’s length. For short shelves, one center cross-member will suffice. Note: If you know where you’ll hang the shelf, you can mark the wall studs and locate the bracket’s cross-members accordingly so you can easily screw into the studs without obstruction. The photos in this article will show the basics of bracket construction.

Second to the bracket’s hold against the wall, its most important connections are the joints between the bracket’s back rail and its crossmembers. To provide a strong hold, we recommend cutting half-lap joints at the ends of the rail. The two end members connect onto the rail with mating half-laps. The half-lap joints provide increased surface area to apply wood glue and are fastened with countersunk cross-grain screws from the top and side, which is substantially stronger than driving screws into the endgrain of a board.

You can cut the half-lap joints using a band saw, a table saw equipped with a dado set, or use a router table outfitted with a straight bit.