Stylish and easy to make bookshelf

Step 4 Attaching to the wall

Once everything is painted and varnished, assemble the whole without the topmost shelf against the wall where you want it to stand (you might need help with that). Add wedges in some places if you need them.
Now drill holes for screws in the gaps prepared for the top shelf, mark the places on the wall where the screws will go out and drill holes for the studs. This way the screws won't be visible from the outside and everybody will have the impression that the shelf just isn't attached to anything. If you're afraid that there is not enough wood left in the topmost gap to allow for a hole to be drilled in it, drill just above the gap - this way the hole will be almost invisible behind the shelf when looking from below anyway.

Comments

[kspear]

Too divide the load, you could also do this at lower shelves at an interval. For instance, you could attach screws at the top, 3rd and 5th shelves OR the top 4th and 7th shelves. Adding attachment points will divide the load. You could also attach at shelf points where you intend to have heavy books resting. Using the same process to drill at the shelf point, the system will still look as though its floating on the wall!

[SimonF]

Could do that, but the shelf stands on the floor anyway, so it really doesn't need dividing the load - most load is actually on the floor, and the screws are there mostly to make sure that the shelf doesn't fall to the front. With more screws you could lift it from the floor and make it 'float' even more, agreed. But that's compromising the functionality, I think, as you would need to give up the bottom shelf - when it's there you don't really see whether the shelf stands on the floor or not anyway, so only getting rid of it would make the effect visible. I prefer to have more book-space. On the other hand, only three screws have the advantage of not messing up your wall too much and making it easier to move the shelf should you need to.

[SimonF]

And let me just mention that I have this bookself for over a year now, it has more books on it than it had when the photo was taken, and it still takes all its load with ease, happiness and pride ;)