How to Construct Shelf Brackets
There are a large variety of styles available when it comes to the brackets that hold up shelves on the wall. Designers will use a variety of ornately shaped brackets to dress up the overall look of the shelves. As long as the critical function of the bracket is met, which is support, the possibilities are endless.
What You'll Need:
- One two-by-eight board that is at least 2 feet long
- Level
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- Protective eyewear
- Circular saw
- Power drill
- 1/2-inch drill bit
- 1/8-inch drill bit
- Stud finder
- Long screwdriver drill bit
- 2-inch long wood screws
- Put the two-by-eight board on a work bench or other elevated flat surface. Place your measuring tape on the narrow end of the board, and near the top corner use a pencil to mark 8 inches in. Ensure that the mark is on the top long edge of the board. Put the level across the board diagonally so that it extends from the mark you just made back to the bottom corner of the end. Make a line along the level to make a triangle.
- Completely cut across the diagonal line using a circular saw. Hold the board out over the edge of the cutting surface while completing this step. Repeat this process on the opposite end of the board making two triangular shapes.
- Lay one of the triangles on the long straight edge, the angled size should be facing upwards. Use a pencil to make two marks on the angled side that are evenly spaced from the ends and from one another. Using your power drill and a 1/2-inch drill bit, drill down at each of the marks. Ensure that you don't go all the way through the other side of the piece, stop about 1 to 2 inches short of it.
- Begin using the 1/8-inch drill bit and insert it into the 1/2-inch holes. Drill down the rest of the piece and out the other side. You should now have two 1/2-inch holes on one side a two 1/8-inch holes of the opposite side. Repeat this step for the remaining triangle.
- Using a level and a pencil, make a straight horizontal line on the wall where you want the bottom of the shelf to be installed. It's essential that it span two studs within the wall so that the brackets have something to attach to. You can use an electric stud finder to locate the studs. Mark two 6-inch long vertical lines just underneath the horizontal line at each of the studs. This will show you where the brackets go.
- Put one of the brackets along one of the horizontal lines. Put the long straight edge up against the wall and the short edge vertically out at the top of the line. Using your drill and screwdriver bit, drill a wood screw into the top hole. The 1/2-inch part of the hole should allow the bit to easily push the screw down into the 1/8-inch hole.
- Repeat this process for your second bracket.