Wall shelves?

[Kaeldre]

I have a mountain of plushies that takes up a good half of my bed and I need a decent way to display them.  I was thinking of putting a shelf above my bed and displaying them there.  My question is: Should I try and make my own shelf and just worry about buying the mounting brackets (we have 2x4s I can sand and paint) or should I get one of those fancy "floating" wall shelves from Amazon.  I'm an idiot when it comes to this sort of stuff. ^^'

[Tilas]

Honestly? Build an entire shelving unit out of 1X6, then if you ever decide to move it, you can easily without leaving dozens of holes in your walls.  It'll also hold up better, look better, and give you more room. I had one made for my toys, but now it's been converted to a DVD storage unit, worked perfectly.  I plan to build another longer one for my bedroom.

EDIT: Bad picture, but if you look to the far right, the shelf with the DVDs, you can see what I mean
http://tilastrinity.deviantart.com/art/Magic-Sword-379285301

It becomes one solid unit, instead of many little shelves and brackets. For added stability you can use plywood on the back to make it REALLY solid, but you don't have to.  You can use as many, or as few shelves as you like as well, just know the longer you go, you might need to put a center brace to keep the boards form bowing.  This one is my dads shelf which he did in about an hour or two. The one he made for me has a plywood backing, and the front is routered (edges rounded) so it looks much nicer.

[Kaeldre]

This is sort of what I'm wanting to do (minus the coat hooks)

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Tilas]

(I edited my 1st post with a picture of what I meant if it was missed cause I think we posted at the same time)

I'd strongly advise against a design like that. There's no stability or strength in boards that way. I know, you may be thinking it's just toys, doesn't need strength, but plushie weight adds up fast, and also, what if someone were to grab it? Can't have it snapping off the wall. Brackets really aren't that strong, especially if there's any sort of distance. You would need a bracket at least ever 16 inches for it to have any form of strength, and seeing as how each bracket uses 2 screws for top and 2 on bottom, that adds up to a lot of holes in the wall, where as one complete unit would be much less.

[Kaeldre]

Oh, wow I never would have thought about that. o.o

I really like what you've done there, but I don't have much wall space to work with (antique bed, REALLY high headboard).  See here (nice view of the aforementioned plushie mountain): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43042806/Photos/IMG_0484.JPG

Would it be possible to do something like that with one or two shelves?

[kaoskat]

Don't look at me. Mine are all in a stuffy hammock dangling from near the ceiling.

[Kiwi]

Mine are primarily in boxes/tubs, I have no room to display everything.

[Tilas]

Oh sure! In that case just do a long 2-3 shelves case above the head board. You could go up to the ceiling and come down a foot or so, so you don't bonk your head on the shelf lol.  I would go from far wall to nearly that door, which I'm guessing 6 feet or so. You'd only need 4 1X6. 3 for the shelves (top, middle, and bottom) and 1 to be cut for the sides and center braces, then a 2X2 for the corner braces, though metal brackets can do the same job if you have them (the 2X2 is probably MUCH cheaper though).  It's pretty easy to do, if you want to add a plywood backing you can to make it super stable, but that's up to you for the size. For height, choose your tallest plush and go from there. Everything can be adjusted to what you need, this is only a guideline. 1X6 is nice because while strong, it's also thin and doesn't take up a lot of space.

Simple diagram I made up that shows what I mean. What's nice about this, is that you have 3 shelves as you can use the top! In this picture I put in the center brace, however, if your shelf is 4 feet long or under, you wouldn't need to worry about the center braces (unless it's a lot of weight!).  If using a center brace, you want the SHELVES to be full length and use two small boards for the brace. Don't make the brace 1 solid peice and chop up the shelves smaller, or you'll just be wasting strength!

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Kaeldre]

Awesome~   I smell a possible summer project!  Thanks so much for the advice, Tilas!

And if something happens and I mess it up, a toy hammock is an option.