I have the secret to hanging shelves!
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I love decorative floating shelves but they can be a challenge to hang. My favorite place to put them is in an office or man/woman cave. My favorite things to put on them are those fun little items that I don’t necessarily want displayed in public areas of my house. It’s those little tchotchkes, the fun and sometimes wacky gifts I’ve received over the years that make me smile. From the metal lizard my brother sent me to entice me to move back to Arizona to the bandaged teddy bear I received after my little sister ran me over with my car, these are the memories I love to see when I walk into my personal space. 🙂
So imagine my dismay when I discovered these little shelves can be a pain in the butt to hang! The first thing I realized is that the space between the two hooks on the back of the shelf isn’t always exactly the same distance apart. I found that out the hard way the first time I hung shelves. I measured one shelf and then drilled all the holes for the anchors for the rest of the shelves based on the measurements of that first shelf. Really bad outcome and a whole lot of bad words… It’s no wonder that they get bad reviews when purchased online. So many of the reviews say they’re so hard to hang! Well, not anymore!
It was out of self preservation that I came up with the secret to hanging shelves. It’s so easy, and more importantly it’s an accurate way to hang level shelves every time. And no bad words!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Level
Painters Tape or Washi Tape
Pencil or Pen
Nails or Anchors (depending on the weight of the shelf and contents on it)
Here’s what you’ll do:
1. String a piece of tape across the back of the shelf, from one hook to the other. Mark where the hooks are on the tape.
2. Place the tape on the wall in the desired place, and adjust it with the level
3. With the tape still on the wall, hammer/drill the nail/anchor and screw into the wall
4. Remove the tape and hang the shelf. Verify that it’s level.
All done!
There is such a large variety of shelves to choose from. I just ordered these grey wash shelves for my bathroom. I put these fun items on them from Amazon… Toilet paper sign and soap dish.
Here’s my other girl cave shelves. Every item tells a story…
And here’s some I hung in my mom’s house…
I hope this will make life a little easier for you next time you want to hang some decorative shelves!
Happy Tinkering,
Susan
It was helpful when you mentioned that a level is one of the items you are going to need when hanging a floating shelf. Would it be a good idea to get a laser level when trying to hang things on a wall? I would imagine that a laser level would allow you to perfectly align things.
I do have a lazer level, but I just use a small inexpensive level when hanging shelves.