Shelving

Step 1: Assemble Your Materials

The first step in installing decorative wall shelving is to get all of your materials and supplies together, including all necessary tools. If you are using a kit, the necessary shelving materials will already be included, but you’ll still need to make sure that you have things like a drill, handsaw, pencil, etc.

step 2: Pick Your Location

Before you actually get started on your decorative wall shelving, survey the area where you want to mount your shelves. Ask yourself if there will really be enough room for your shelves, and for the items which you will keep on them. You will probably want to avoid mounting your decorative wall shelves on walls over top of chairs and sofas, as people will be likely to bump their heads on them as they stand up. As well, decorative wall shelving should not be mounted on the walls that have a lot of hall traffic, as people may brush up against him and knock them down.

step 3: Size up the Situation

Once you have settled on a general location for your decorative wall shelving, you should use a tape measure or yardstick to figure out approximately how long your shelves will need to be — it’s better to cut your shelving boards a little longer than to cut them too short. Make sure that the length of your decorative wall shelving is appropriate for the size wall that you have to work with.

step 4: Mark Your Territory

The next step in installing your wall shelving is to very carefully mark your wall surface to indicate where you want your shelves to be located. Use a carpenter’s level or string level to make sure that the lines that you have drawn on your wall are perfectly straight. If you’ve done everything correctly up to this point, you now know where you want your shelves to be mounted, as well as how long they will need to be.

step 5: Make Your Shelves

The next step in the installation process is to actually construct your shelving. If you are making your decorative wall shelving from scratch, you will need to cut, shape, sand and paint or finish your shelves. If you are using a kit much of this work may have already been done for you. If you need to, you can place your decorative wall shelving pieces along side of your wall, to get an idea of how the finished items will look once they are mounted. If the shape, color or style seems out of place, go back to square one and try something else.

step 6: Mount Your Brackets

Finally, once your decorative wall shelving boards have been finished, you will need to mount your wall brackets securely onto the wall surface. Placing the shelves atop the brackets, you should again check to make sure that everything is level — nothing looks worse than a crooked shelf hanging on a wall!

When mounting your shelf brackets you should try to make sure that they are mounted directly into your wall studs — if you don’t do this your decorative wall shelving can be pulled down from the wall very easily, as there really isn’t anything there to support all of that weight except the wall anchors embedded into the plaster or drywall.