Create Your Own Stunning Shelving System With TikTok's Simple Wood DIY

Adding shelves to your room can be one of the best storage and display options for small spaces. They free up space at the floor level, which makes the room look less cluttered and draws the eye upward. TikTok user @ideias_do_dia_recently showed off how she made a stylish set of wall shelves from a simple wood frame construction and inexpensive wood lengths. By assembling a ladder-style set of brackets fastened to the wall, she is able to lie the planks of wood across. The result is a modern and sleek bank of floating shelves perfect for books, plants, and other types of storage. 

To create your shelves, you will need. 15 lengths of 1-inch by 2-inch wood cut to the desired width of your shelves, 6 longer lengths cut to the height of the shelves, and four long planks at 1-inch thick. You will also need a screwdriver, screws, a stud finder, paint, or your preferred wood stain for the finished shelves.

In the TikTok post, @ideias_do_dia_ constructs a ladder frame by screwing the pieces together through the outer rails and into the lateral supports on each side, making sure that they are sturdily held together — particularly if the shelves will be holding a larger weight load. using a stud finder and a level, screw the entire frame to the wall along its length into the wall studs. The end result will be three brackets placed at an equal height along the wall. 

The four 1-inch planks are then laid across the three ladders to form the shelves. Keep in mind that the lateral supports will need to be slightly larger than the width of the plank to allow them to easily slide through. Before assembling the shelves, you might want to sand the wood pieces to a smooth finish, and then paint or stain as desired. Install the shelves by sliding the planks through all three brackets, then finally they are ready for you to add your decorative items. 

Use these shelves in a variety of home spaces, including as bookshelves, a plant stand,  or bedroom closet/dressing room storage. They are also completely customizable to fit your space, since you're able to upsize or downsize the width, length and number of shelves to fit your space. @ideias_do_dia_ paints her ladder brackets a solid matte black while leaving the shelves in a natural wood stain, but you can customize your DIY to fit your design aesthetic with either a painted or stained finish. You can also replace the wood planks with custom thick plexiglass or glass shelves for a modern and contemporary floating look.

For an easy hack on this project, you can also purchase IKEA's inexpensive IVAR shelving brackets, which can be mounted on the wall in a similar way to the ladder bracket, with boards placed across the lateral supports. Keep in mind the IKEA frame is thinner overall and may not support as much weight as the one with thicker lumber made from scratch.