Building whole-wall fitted shelves

[OwlHoot]

I want all the shelves to be the same depth - about 6" as there is a boxed pipe that depth at one end. ...

6" doesn't seem deep enough, unless all your ornaments are miniature porcelain bulldogs and snuff boxes, and all your books paperbacks.

I'd make it 9" or 1' and damn the boxed in pipe, or re-box it in.

[suityou01]

Isn't there an app for this?

[sasguru]

6" doesn't seem deep enough, unless all your ornaments are miniature porcelain bulldogs and snuff boxes, and all your books paperbacks.

I'd make it 9" or 1' and damn the boxed in pipe, or re-box it in.

Didn't notice that he wanted depth of 6 inches eek. Completely agree. The depth of my shelves in 14 inches.

[Halo Jones]

At only 6” deep make sure you fasten it to the wall, (mid & top) as the base to height ratio is skew & likely to topple.

Either use an Ikea like system or get it built to order: but don’t use a joiner or kitchen fitter, get a carpenter / furniture maker in.

[darmstadt]

Don't get me to do it:

[alluvial]

Go to the UKWorkshop forum and have a look there. Lots of threads on fitted shelves and there should be some stuff on design as well.

And there is an app. The sagulator can be invaluable and save some embarrassment.

[proggy]

Why not get a joiner in to do it, your time as a contractor is expensive and given your asking about it on a IT contractor forum you will likely balls it up.

[d000hg]

Sorry my mistake, it's actually nearer 10". The current floor-standing shelf we have is very deep so it looked less in comparison, but it turns out the shelves we have are more like 14". Which is way too deep for paperbacks, they disappear inside the shelf!

I reckon the 9-10" we actually have should be a good compromise, though the comment about re-boxing the pipe is't a bad call.

Now I just want to start drawing on the wall but if we end up delaying the work this wouldn't be ideal

[doodab]

Now I just want to start drawing on the wall but if we end up delaying the work this wouldn't be ideal

You could take photos of the spines of books and stick them to the wall. From a distance, you won't be able to tell the difference.

[d000hg]

Did a sketch on A4 (but an accurate one with measurements).
No backing just use the existing wall.
Don't make it too complex and you'll be fine.

Sas, did you actually have shelves fitted onto the wall then? I'm concerned the brackets would be visible. Or did they essentially build a big free-standing unit against the wall, so it's self-supporting rather than putting any load on the wall itself? The latter seems preferable to me personally.