James and I had been talking about making a TV stand or table for a long time. We had an entertainment station that was given to us from someone’s basement, that we had literally cut in half to make more of a TV stand, because it was to small for our TV. Like, we actually cut the top half of it. It had saw marks, no backing, and flimsy shelfs. But it worked. James is really creative and I have seen him build some very unique pieces of furniture from wood, so I was basically leaving this project in his court. I knew he would come up with something eventually. One Sunday morning, he said, “I have an idea! Why don’t we do large floating shelves?” I loved the simplicity and openness of open shelving, too, so I agreed and off we went to Menards!
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We bought four ½ inch gas pipes, flanges, and caps. At Menards, they came in two sizes, 5 in and 10 inches. I thought 5 inches wasn’t deep enough, so we decided on the 10 inch pipe. On Amazon, I see you can find them in several other lengths.
Here is that old half-TV stand I was talking about, the one that we sawed in half, so you can see what we started with….
Anyways, we like a rustic look, so decided on pine planks with lots of knots and a bit of raw edge. We planned on two planks, each 5 inches wide, for each shelf to lay side by side.
James knew that this large of a shelf holding our TV would have to be anchored in the studs in the wall. So using good old fashion knocking on walls and a drill we found our studs (but not before James drilled several extra holes in the wall. Will the spackling and paint touch ups ever end?!)
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We screwed the flanges into the stud at the height we wanted (about 20 inches from the floor) and then using a level, we made sure the shelf was level from stud-to-stud.
Our shelves about about 15 inches apart, and again we used a level to make sure the flanges were even both perpendicularly and horizontally.
We screwed the pipes into the flanges, and then placed the caps on the exposed ends. Next, we laid the two pine planks side by side, resting on the pipes.
And ta-da! Beautiful, rustic, open, floating shelves!!
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This was one of the easiest AND fastest DIY projects we have ever done, and it totally opened up and updated our living room! I love the look of it so much that I am trying to think where else we can install some floating shelves! (Maybe in the nursery!?)
Here they are all decorated for fall. I still have to figure out what to do with those cords (how embarrassing! haha) Maybe something like these cord covers I saw on Amazon that can be mounted on the wall and painted? We will see. For now I try and hide them behind the baskets.
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I still don’t know if I should stain them or not? In these pictures they are natural, un-stained wood. What do you think? To stain or not to stain? Leave your vote in the comments below!
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Build On,
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