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Updated: Aug 22, 2022 by Kris Jarrett

Our Floating Corner Shelves

Today I’m sharing all the details about the floating corner shelves in our kitchen because I’ve gotten so many questions about them since the reveal of our kitchen remodel. When designing our kitchen, I had something very specific in mind for the open shelving and there was nothing pre-made that came close to it so my contractor (Reszoly Builders) and I tag teamed to DIY it!

My shelves ended up being one of my favorite things about our new space so I wanted to share the step by step how-to for those of you who would like to bring this look into your home too! And read on to the end of the post where I share a source for buying super similar floating shelves pre-made if you’d prefer not to DIY! (post includes affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

Sharing how to DIY the corner wood shelves in our kitchen!(See {this post} for all kitchen remodel sources)

First, here’s the step by step of how to create floating wood shelves if you want to DIY it…

1. Source White Oak Boards

The first step was to find a local source for thick white oak boards, which most typical hardware stores don’t carry. The key is to look for a place that specializes in raw lumber products because not only will they carry the oak boards but they’ll typically also cut and plane them to the size you want. I ended up getting mine from Kellogg Hardwood Lumber in Bethel, CT – I bought two raw white oak boards that were both planed to be 1 ¾″ thick (the maximum thickness they were able to get from a 2″ thick board) and ripped (cut along its length) to be 10″ deep. This is what each board looked like when I brought them home – isn’t the wood itself beautiful?!

The white oak boards used to create the floating corner shelves in our kitchen

2. Install Floating Shelf Brackets

I did a ton of searching and reading of reviews to figure out which shelf brackets would work best for our floating corner shelves and ended up going with the large size of {these heavy duty steel brackets} that support shelves from 7-12″ deep.

The brackets we used to install our floating corner shelves

The brackets can be installed with the base in a vertical or horizontal position – my contractor installed them in the vertical position over studs to provide maximum stability. As far as the height that we placed the brackets, the bottom pair was positioned so that the bottom of the first shelf would line up with the bottom of my upper cabinet:

Aligning the floating corner shelves in our kitchen with the bottom of our cabinets

The top pair of brackets was placed exactly 15″ up from the bottom set since that’s the height I chose for my second shelf. To keep the base of the brackets from showing after installation of the shelves, my contractor traced the outline of them on the wall in the spots they were to be hung and notched out the drywall so that the brackets were slightly recessed once installed. This is what they looked like after installation (FYI, in case you’re wondering, the white shelf below was just a test shelf that I talk more about later):

These brackets work perfectly for installing floating corner shelves!

Note: you could also choose to hang the brackets so the base is horizontal instead of vertical (the brackets come with anchors for spots where they’re not going into studs) – then no wall prep is needed since the shelves will cover the base but you’d have to notch out the back of your wood shelves if you want them to sit flush on the wall. 

3. Tile or Putty Over the Brackets

Once the brackets were in place, our wall was tiled. The four tiles that went over the brackets were notched out and then laid as usual (the notches were done horizontally so they will be hidden by the shelves):

Great post on how to install brackets for floating corner shelves

If the walls where your shelf will hang are going to be painted instead of tiled, simply spackle over the base of the bracket, sand it smooth with the rest of the wall and paint it the same color as the wall.

4. Join Two Oak Board Pieces to Create the “L” Shape

Now that my brackets were hung and the wall was tiled, it was time to create the corner shelf. Since the white oak wasn’t exactly cheap, my contractor built a test corner shelf with leftover construction lumber to make sure he had the sizing and hole placement correct and he then used that test shelf as a template for creating the white oak corner shelf.

Creating the corner shelf involved joining together one long length of white oak (in my case, a 36″ long piece that spanned from the end of the cabinet to the wall) with a shorter piece (mine was 9″) to create the “L” shape. In the area where the two oak board pieces were to be joined, two large holes were drilled in each piece that line up with one another – then wood dowels and wood glue were used to join the pieces together after which they were clamped until dry.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a pic of this step but you can get a good idea of the hole size and placement by looking at the test piece in the bottom right of the pic below that was used as a trial piece. Then two holes for hanging the shelves were drilled on the back of each shelf at a position where they would line up exactly with the stem of the floating shelf brackets. Since all of these holes need to be drilled at exactly 90 degrees for everything to be level, creating them with a drill press is the best way to go. Second best would be using a clamp and drill guide like {this one}.

5. Sand & Stain Your Corner Shelves

Once dry, the wood shelves were sanded so that the spot where the two pieces were joined together in the L shape was a totally smooth transition. If you want a completely natural look to your wood shelves, your next step would be to apply a few coats of a protective finish. I actually wanted mine to have a slightly gray washed look so I played around with different stain concoctions on some test pieces of white oak to create the exact stain I wanted.

Testing out different stains for my floating corner shelves!

I wish I had a specific stain formula to share with you, but I kept adding a little more of this and that until I got it just right. What I can tell you is that it was a combination of Minwax Natural, Classic Gray, and Pickled Oak stains. After staining, I coated both sides and the front edge of both shelves with two coats of matte Polycrylic (available {here}), letting it dry well between coats. I love Polycrylic as a protective top coat because it doesn’t yellow like other top coats often do. Here’s a close up of what the final finish looks like:

Love the gray wash finish of these stained white oak corner shelves!

6. Slide Your Shelf Onto Your Brackets & Secure It

Once my corner shelves were completely dry, they were installed by simply sliding them onto the brackets. Then for extra security and to keep my shelves 100% level, my contractor drilled an anchoring screw (shown on the right about ⅓ down in the pic below) through the inside of my upper cabinet into the middle of each shelf about 1 ½″ in from the front edge of the shelf:

How we secured the floating corner shelves in our kitchen

And… we’re done!

What we keep on the floating corner shelves in our kitchen!

Sources – On Counter: Round braided tray | Marble & wood utensil holder | Blk/Wht hand towel   On Shelves: Glass hurricane vase  |  Brass accent pitcher  |  Patterned recipe tin  |  White ceramic pitcher  |  Faux white peonies  | Faux white hydrangeas  |  Faux lilac stems  |  Marble salt cellar  |  Spiral wood salad servers  |  Glass oil & vinegar bottles  |  Gray & white striped planter  |  Decorative snail

 

Gorgeous wood floating corner shelves - this post has the how-to for this shelving DIY!

Want to Buy Instead of DIY?

At the time that we installed our floating corner shelves there were no shops out there that made anything like it. Since that time, UltraShelf (which you can find {here} has started selling floating shelves that are basically identical to mine (and they are giving my readers 25% off through this link!). They are completely customizable in size, thickness, wood type, and stain. I got the floating shelves in our bathroom from them and love them (you can read all about them and the specifics of the shelving I chose in {this post}:

Great info on floating wood shelves - where to buy them and how to install them!

To create corner shelves using UltraShelf, you would need to buy two shelves to create one corner shelf – one that runs along the long wall and a second one that butts up against it on the shorter wall. Their shelves come complete with brackets and everything you need to hang them.

With both my kitchen and bathroom shelves, I love how the natural wood warms up the space and also love being able to change up the look of the rooms with what I choose to place on our shelves. I get a lot of questions about whether I feel my open corner shelving is wasted space and I actually don’t feel that way at all! Other than the small snake plant on the bottom shelf and my super cute decorative brass snail (available {here}),

Love these ideas for kitchen floating corner shelves!

everything on my open shelves is something I use and would choose to have in my kitchen whether or not I had open shelving. Even {this ceramic pitcher} that holds faux flowers on the top shelf is something that I clean out and use for parties:

These realistic faux flowers in a pitcher are perfect for dressing up the look of your shelves!

As far as dust goes, things like my brass & glass pitcher and my wood bowls do get dusty over time but it takes less than a minute to give them a quick soapy rinse before putting them to use.

I love open kitchen shelving - these are a few of the accessories that I have on mine!

What do you guys think about open shelving? This is the first house I’ve had it in and I would absolutely love to have it again in a future home (I do like also having some typical upper cabinets to hide the uglies!). I hope this post helped for those of you who have had questions about our corner shelving but if you need any more info or details on anything, just ask me in the comments! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week!

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Categories: Kitchens

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. [email protected] and state says

    April 22, 2019 at 8:49 am

    BEAUTIFUL!
    great tutorial Kris with stunning results. I found myself staring and taking in all the details of your entire kitchen…perfection!
    xoxo
    Debra

    Reply
  2. RW says

    April 22, 2019 at 9:20 am

    I love the tile look behind your open shelves. I am probably going to use some open shelving when I rework my kitchen cabinets. I am going to raise some of the cabinets because I have a 10-foot ceiling (could actualy stack cabinets two high if I wanted) and put open shelving below, where access is easy. The collection on top of the current cabinets will go away because I can only really clean it up seasonally and it collects a lot of greasy dust. I read an article a few years ago about open shelving and the suggestion was to only put things on open shelving that you used daily or very often so they are frequently washed; then, dusting doesn’t become an issue. So I am going to sort through all of our kitchen contents and put a lot of thought into what goes on open shelving versus what goes behind glass door cabinets and what goes in the closed door cabinets.

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      May 28, 2019 at 7:54 pm

      What a great idea – so smart!

      Reply
  3. HomeDecorAZ says

    April 22, 2019 at 3:14 pm

    Fantastic job! Looks great! The stain and finish of the shelves work so well with that classic white backsplash. Thank you for sharing the process and tips.

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      May 28, 2019 at 7:54 pm

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  4. Claudine says

    April 22, 2019 at 3:33 pm

    I think you have the right combination of closed cupboards and open shelving. For me, all open shelving would be a nightmare, but I love the way you have used just one spot to make a pretty, yet functional spot and it really opens up that corner.

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      May 28, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      Thank you Claudine!

      Reply
  5. Karen Bunch says

    April 22, 2019 at 10:39 pm

    Kris,
    How clever. I love the way your kitchen turned out and these shelves are just the right amount of open shelving. The accessories/essentials are pretty as well.
    Thanks for always sharing some of these great ideas. I’m sure your readers appreciate it, I know I do!
    xo,
    Karen

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      May 28, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      You are so sweet – thank you Karen!

      Reply
  6. Savannah says

    October 17, 2019 at 10:59 am

    LOVE!!! Where did you find the bottles for oil? Super cute and great idea!

    Reply
  7. Marlee says

    April 14, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    Where did you find the bottles for oil?

    Reply
  8. Cassi says

    April 22, 2020 at 10:50 am

    Did you put a bracket on the short part of the “L”? If so, how? If not, it’s that part of the shelf sturdy enough to hold dishes?

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      February 19, 2021 at 3:51 pm

      No there’s no bracket on the short end but there are large, sturdy wood dowels connecting it to the long shelf. I wouldn’t put anything that weighed a ton on them but they handle what’s on them just fine.

      Reply
  9. Brittany says

    June 03, 2020 at 4:59 pm

    Hi there,
    We are getting ready to add shelving to our kitchen and my setup for a corner is just like yours! I was so happy when I found your photo of Pinterest because it was that ah-ha moment of YES! This is what I want it to look like. It’s just lovely, by the way!

    I know you said you have your shelves placed 15″ distance from each other but I was curious what the measurement is from the top of your counter to the bottom of the first shelf? Is that around 18″? Now that you have lived with it for a bit, do you wish you would have gone more or less than 15″ distance?
    Thanks so much for your help!

    Reply
  10. lela22_9 says

    July 31, 2020 at 12:13 pm

    Thank you so much for this post! I’m looking to do the same as we’re currently remodeling our kitchen. Can you tell me the depth of the two pieces of wood that created the L? I know they are 9” in length but are these also 10″ deep?

    Reply
  11. joinery wanaka says

    September 15, 2020 at 4:21 am

    Over this blog you would get to know about the diy floating corner shelves. These are must read for all. This article is a good one to look at. You will get best review over here and would suggest others too. Great blog indeed, will visit again future to read more!!

    Reply
  12. Julia McCabe says

    October 02, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    Hi, I just want to make sure I’m seeing this correctly. Are the anchoring pins only on the long side of the shelves? Thanks, these are beautiful and your instructions are very helpful.

    Reply
    • Jessica R says

      July 25, 2021 at 9:23 am

      Hello there she answered this question above..

      “No there’s no bracket on the short end but there are large, sturdy wood dowels connecting it to the long shelf. I wouldn’t put anything that weighed a ton on them but they handle what’s on them just fine.”

      Reply
  13. Amy Abramson says

    March 07, 2021 at 1:19 pm

    Love it! I have a smaller kitchen, same layout (standard GE Cafe range with corner shelving on the right).

    I’m considering “open corner shelving” for my vast collection of vintage, heavily used Le Creuset pots/pans. (There isn’t a day when I don’t use it.) Two questions I keep asking myself:

    1. Are my Le Creuset too “beat up” to be in view? (I’ve tried every cleaning method & Le Creuset will only replace with new).

    1. Are my Le Creuset too heavy or too big for this shelving? (I’d want as many on shelves as possible).

    Do you have any other solutions for easy access to pots/pans? (No matter what I try, my stove top is always packed. Ugh!).

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      March 08, 2021 at 9:40 pm

      If you’re able to mount your floating shelf brackets securely on studs, then your shelves could hold quite a bit of weight (It depends on the brackets but mine are rated to hold 100 pounds for each bracket used). If you have the option for adding deep kitchen drawers instead of cabinets, I love them for keeping pots and pans where they’re easy to get to!

      Reply
  14. Kerrin Mcgrath says

    March 22, 2021 at 11:15 pm

    Hey! Thank you for my inspiration. I’m doing the exact same thing and was wondering if u only had the 2 anchors on the one wall. What about the cover piece. That’s what we are racking our brains about. How to join the l together while pushing it onto the brackets. Thanks for any advice

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      March 31, 2021 at 1:08 pm

      Yes I just have the two anchors for each shelf – the small corner piece is attached to the larger piece with two large wood dowels.

      Reply
  15. Justine says

    May 27, 2021 at 6:42 am

    I’m so glad I came across this! That anchoring screw is a game changer. Completely eliminates the wiggle, stable as a rock now. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  16. Jessica R says

    July 25, 2021 at 9:16 am

    Hi there-
    Your kitchen is beautiful. I’m in the process of redoing my kitchen and have a similar space in my corner that I intended on doing the same thing. Unfortunately my carpenter wasn’t able to create the shelving before the tile guy installed the backspalsh and that area now has tile. Would it be particularly difficult to still install the invisible brackets over the tile so that it still looks flush to the wall?

    Reply
  17. lina says

    February 01, 2022 at 11:48 am

    What is the length of your shelf? I am remodeling our kitchen and thinking to put open shelves in the corner. Right now they are 27 inches long from the cabinet to the wall, and from the wall to the other cabinet (L shape), it’s 33 inches long. I believe we’re going to do 9-12 depth (haven’t decided yet). I am concerned that a corner of 27 one way… and 33 the other way is too much. I only really want to put cookbooks, etc. Would love to know how long yours are as this helps me visualize what it could look like in mine. Beautiful kitchen! 🙂

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      February 02, 2022 at 11:04 pm

      Mine was 36″ measured in one direction and 19″ measured in the other 🙂

      Reply
  18. deedee says

    January 11, 2023 at 1:49 pm

    can u please share how tall your ceiling in kitchen is?

    Reply

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