Make Custom Wooden Wall Shelves!

Practical, decorative and easy to make, wooden wall shelves are a proven bestseller for kit furniture sellers. In your kitchen, office or living room, are you looking to have custom wooden shelves made and cut? Look no further, this tutorial is for you! Colorful and full of pep, Brigitte made shelves from colored MDF (or medium density fiberboard tinted in the mass) to bring good mood and joy to John's workspace. Thanks to the John Steel configurator, in just a few clicks the wood fiber panels are cut to measure. If you're more tempted by solid wood or compact laminated wood, with our custom cutting service everything is possible! For the rest of the assembly with metal brackets, special wood screws and a few drills, discover how to make wooden shelves in a few minutes!

For our creation, blue MDF, red and yellow MDF are part of the mix🥳

How to cut MDF wood shelves?

Small, medium or large shelf, when you need to cut it to your dimensions it's never easy. Irregular cut, equipment breaking down or worse, you've lent your DIY equipment!! Don't worry, I have the solution you need. Once I had my dimensions, I used the John Steel configurator. In a few minutes, my wooden shelves were made and all with a simple click:

1. Choosing the wood: resistant to weight and protected against UV rays, the medium density fiberboard panel is the star wood of this tutorial! And for a decor full of #Steel, I cut these shelves from medium density fiberboard tinted in the mass.
2. The dimensions: for my project and after having checked several times, these wall shelves were cut to the following dimensions: 930 mm x 240 mm (if you also want to have your wooden shelves cut via the configurator, be sure to convert your dimensions to millimeters)
3. The machining: as you may have noticed, the wood panels have rounded corners. This option is available in the configurator's toolkit and it's just one of many possibilities 😉

Cut your custom wooden shelves!

Making a wooden shelf up to installation!

Delivered, unpacked and prepared, the MDF wood panels are ready to make wall shelves. Of course you need some equipment for the next events, but don't worry, the list won't be long:

• A drill
• A set of special wood screws suited to the wood thickness, in my case they are 3.5 mm diameter and 16 mm long screws.
• A varnish for the protection of the wood
• A synthetic bristle brush
• Shelf brackets: For total customization, I chose metal brackets but it is possible to use other supports.
• A set of so-called turbodrive screws to facilitate fixing the shelves to the wall. 😁

But before you dive headlong into making wooden shelves, there's a step that shouldn't be neglected. Wood protection!!

Step 1: Protecting wall shelves with varnish

You might be installing wooden shelves in a living space, in an office or simply as a kitchen shelf, the wood will be exposed to more or less regular use. If you're already undertaking the installation of additional storage, you might as well ensure your DIY session is durable. That's why applying a varnish is recommended.

Stain-resistant and colorless, with a varnish like this my shelves are ready to endure all the treatments John has in store for them.

For this project I used the same varnish as for the wooden planter, the "le suprême" varnish from the 1919 by Mauler brand. Easy to apply, I put 2 coats and it was done.

⚠️ Depending on the varnish you use, the drying time and number of coats may vary!

Step 2: Fixing the shelf supports

Now that the wood panels are protected, I can finally take you into the heart of the matter. For this part you need:

• Special wood screws
• A tape measure
• A pencil
• A drill

Depending on the size of your shelves, you should be careful to balance the space between the supports. In my case, I placed the metal brackets (shelf supports) 12 cm from each edge. The best is to make two marks to ensure you place the brackets at the desired distance.

Then, you need to make marks where the screws will go to first perform a pre-drill. With this trick, it will be easier to screw in the supports and especially depending on the wood, there won't be any unexpected small cracks.

Step 3: Installing the wooden shelves

Since the shelves are made to be fixed to the wall, we can finally get to the heart of the matter. For this operation, I called on John who took a mischievous pleasure in gathering his equipment. To tell you more, you need:

• A drill powerful enough to adapt to all types of walls (in our case the wall is brick)
• Drill bits also adapted to the wall to be drilled
• Fixing screws and dowels
• A spirit level

Are you ready? Let's go for an express shelf assembly!!

First, you need to place the shelf where you want it. Using the spirit level, find the perfect alignment so that your shelves are perfectly balanced. Once this balance point is found, make pencil marks to be sure you drill in the right place 😁! Once the preparation is complete, it's time for DIY. Drill in hand, in two shakes of a lamb's tail the 4 fixing holes are done! Quick and efficient, this John. Like a surgeon, he installs the necessary dowels for the shelf installation in the blink of an eye. Are you following? All that remains is to screw the wooden shelves to the wall.

After a quick cleanup and the addition of decor, the decorative and designer shelves are perfect for our reading corner! Thanks to the custom wood cutting service, it is possible to quickly and easily furnish your interiors with custom wall decor. To discover step by step the configuration and installation of these wooden shelves, the video tutorial is made for you 🤩! So head over to this article and enjoy the show.

For those who follow the adventures of John Steel, this wooden creation is part of our special wood month. After the wooden planter, the shelves above, we have more surprises in store for you with 2 other creations!! Stay tuned and follow us on social media if you haven't already 👌.

See you soon for new wood cuts,

Brigitte,