2w ago

Building a shelf for my living room – Part 2

Dear friends,

Last month, I posted this big project idea of mine to Beehaw's as well as Hexbear's DIY communities. Now I'd like to give you an update.

All figures I'm referring to are here: https://imgur.com/a/b8vGfQf

First, a big thank you to all who have replied, you've helped me a lot in making this project a reality. I have distilled your answers, tips and critiques into a text document, and I can happily tell you that they gave me a more realistic understanding of what I want to accomplish.

I formatted the post like this because it's quite long, and I like to yap, as the kids say. ::: spoiler General thoughts: So, my original post showed the project as I envisioned it for a while now. Many of you have made me realise that there are a myriad of factors to consider, just for hanging the shelves on the wall ... not to mention the difficulty of sawing, building, painting everything yourself, as well as the price! Good lumber ain't cheap, kids! I didn't mention it in the original post, but for a while, I was also thinking of a solution as described here, but I really need something sturdy, and I didn't really care for the aesthetic look of it, so I dismissed the idea. Friends, I'm happy to say that I think I found a middle ground. There are still some questions to be answered and difficulties to overcome, but I haven't been this excited (manic) about this project since a while now. Here's the plan: :::

Open questions at the end of all this:

    
I'd like to hear your general thoughts and concerns!
Which wood for the long 5m shelf? 
Lap joints as described above: yay or nay?
Lighting systems?
Back wall of desks?

THANK YOU <3

3 comments

Looks like that old London bridge (especially if you're not from England and saw the photo of that bridge a decade ago)
- 🤣 🤣 🤣 I see it now!!
  But I think you might mean Tower Bridge, which is not that old ironically.

I've done similar in my den and can see a lot of decisions that I made similarly to yours that I regret now about 5 or so years later. What I most worry about in your specific drawing here is potential sag on the shelves above the TV. The problem you may have eventually is that there's a lot of options to support the shelf from the wall side, but how do you support it from the front in a way that isn't ugly? Without that, you may have odd sagging. I have that problem now with a slightly shorter span and I see it every day and I hate it.
There's more mistakes I made with my project that you might face, but addressing everything would drastically change your vision. If (or when) I was doing it again and wanted to solve all my problems, I'd just base my plans on what this old house says to do. ( https://www.thisoldhouse.com/house-one/21244627/build-custom-built-in-shelving-unit )