Leslie Davis From Unsellable Houses Shows Us How To Upgrade A Boring Wall With A Budget-Friendly DIY

Floating shelves can be one of the easiest and most design-friendly additions to any room. They work particularly well in corners, where they offer valuable storage or display space without taking up any room on the floor, drawing the eye upward and adding visual interest to what would otherwise be dead space. HGTV's Leslie Davis recently unveiled a great idea for creating customized and unique floating shelves in a corner on "Unsellable Houses." The upcycled floating shelves, made entirely from scrap wood attached to the wall, are a great option for making a budget-friendly and sustainable piece that fits your home. 

Using various lengths of wood, Davis creates a sculptural piece of usable art in a corner of the living room, offering the homeowners a great spot for decor items and plants. The varying lengths and thicknesses, which include 1x2, 2x2, 2x4, and 1x6 boards, are all harvested from scrap materials left after doing other projects. As such, they cost absolutely nothing to create and fasten easily to the wall with a few screws, making it a perfect DIY to add texture and interest to a boring corner. 

To create the floating shelves, Leslie Davis lays out a configuration of boards in the corner of various sizes and thicknesses, screwing the boards into the walls. For sturdier shelves, be sure to use drywall anchors if necessary and hang at the studs if possible. Place the wood slats vertically along the wall, using the thickest pieces of lumber (in this case, 2x2s, to form the supports for the shelves you will add). Forming an L-shape in the corner with the 2x2s, use three pieces of 1x6 wood to create the shelves, which you will also fasten with screws to the underlying boards. Because the boards meet at a perpendicular, they will support the shelf from both sides. Alternate the placement of the shelves to encompass both walls.

Davis leaves the wood unfinished to match the light and airy feel of the room, but you can finish or paint them to accommodate a number of design schemes. The effect is sculptural and visually dynamic, melding well with more contemporary, laid-back, and boho aesthetics. The more thickness and sizes of boards you use, the more architectural interest the shelves will have. They would also look great out of the corner and on an expanse of wall, though you will want to add additional support for the shelves with stealthy brackets like these from Amazon since you will not have the extra support of the corner placement.