New Custom Shelf Project.

So I decided to rip out my PAX and second TV and just go with one TV and do a new permanent recessed looking shelf system. In short the top will be around 29-30" for the larger 1/4 PFs with the 2 sides being around 26-27" for the normal size PFs. The space it will occupy is setback a bit due to the bathroom wall on the left.

It will be constructed as 2 towers with a bridge across the top. It will be 2x4s and then covered in 2x6s to give the appearance of thicker shelves and to hide the lighting. It will finish the outside and likely touch the side walls to appear like a natural shell. It will also have a rubber flooring for each shelf.

So right now it's August 7, 2017 I just got my plans and rough estimates documented. I have the single TV centered so I could be sure on measurements. A lot just so I can measure. Unfortunately I have vaulted ceilings that start at 8' unlike the 10' downstairs so it's all tight and has to be exact sizes. If I thought 2x2 was strong enough I'd enjoy the extra few inches per section.

Ok so I'll post the drawing and pic I took. I may post a few other pix before I start cutting wood in a few days. I guess it will be like when I did the flooring running up and down stairs. Can't work up here. I have to build it in sections and by breaking the 14.5' top shelf into 2 pieces I may just do some screwing it together upstairs. Will definitely have to do the flat boards up here.

Here is a POS sketch I started. I know it is not the greatest but whatever I just needed to figure out the way I wanted to reinforce the shelves since the are at least 50" long and will be holding a lot of weight. I could of just relied on the wood to have strength but I wanted to turn the 2x4's on their sides to give me a lot of extra room heightwise.

I am flipping them on the sides the notching them and will use 2 2x4 on each side. The covering will be some sort of plywood that of course will be covered.

I will make the front higher than the back. It is now shaping into an idea lol although I had one in mind already but things

The pink represents the supports for my own viewing but there will be 2 in the from as well just not in the center so I only used the rear single one since it will not block the statues and be covered anyway.

This will be the same for the next row above. I do have to connect 2 of these towers with about a 60" bridge so they will share the inner supports or I may consider using one continuous 2x4 that will be about 14' long. I have not yet decided that far ahead. Additionally in the pic you see the front inner support running to the top. That will not got that high. It will stop at the top of the second shelf and under the top shelf giving more support to the long top bridge so I think there will not be any issues with support.

How deep are the shelves, front to back? By drawing it doesn't look too deep, so I think the supports you've planned will be fine.

Nice design.

The shelves will be about 24" deep. The top shelve is 14' wide or so, I was going to go with 14' 2x4s but instead I am going to go with 2 7' long rectangles and bolt them together in the center for added strength. I think that will be better than one continuous piece.

One thing to note is that like the bottom shelf there will be the 5 2x4 supporting about 55" of each of the rectangles so in the end only about 32-34' will overhang on each tower and then be bolted at the center. Should be able to support 10-12 PF's easy.

I am going to post a few frame sketches here. When you have to worry about shelf height and strength it is crazy the way your mind can solve these issues with no training lmao.

To cover all the framing I will either use formicca or possible drywall but I am trying to keep it light as the framing will be hefty alone. Since this room is the lone room upstairs under a huge roof you can go into the attic so I will see where the back frame lines up and screw into a few places it lines up with the houses 2x4. ust in case lol but it will e heavy enough not to tip but again that would be a $$$$$$ crash

So I decided to scrap the original idea I posted above kind of. My main goal really was to provide support but keep the front totally flat without the 2x4 verticals making me have to add some horizontals so I can cover it with nice wood. Well I can across a blog where the shelves were built in a way that I could remove the front supports and keep it flat while maintaining the support.

I will add that while the statues are heavy added up a nice pice of covered plywood supported on 2x4s is ample enough to never sag with 24' deep shelves and 52.5" wide especially with a few cross supports. In fact I will use 2x2 cross supports under the plywood screwed in. Heck I bet 1x1s would work lol but I'll use the 2x2 maybe 2. They will weigh far less than 1 2x4 and maybe 3 will be used. It likely won't even sag with no supports but just in case. Then I can use very thin boards for the bottoms of the shelves. I'll weigh my options at the store lol since I want the lightest material. Thin pressed board 1/4 will easily hold up with a few cross supports and weight a fraction of plywood. Weight reduction is a goal.

So I built my first rectangle that is 1 of 4 that will be used for the first 2 shelves on either side of the unit. I planned to do all 4 but I had my capacitor on my AC go out so I was busy taking care of that this morning. Trust me walking upstairs only to be met with heat 1/2 way up to my show room/office was not a good thing but I have my Tornado fan facing up from downstairs now for some relief for the big boys.

Here is my final design I am going with. I have supports where I think I will need an extra boost and I will use 2x2 where it is not stated 2x4 for the supports. The frame will be mostly 2x4.

Along wit some build pix. Pardon my perspective and exact drawing it is from Illustrator and just a basic guide.

Yeah, like that new design better

Should be a killer cabinet.

Thanks. I just went and got my 2x2s and a few more 2x4s. I am going to cut the 10' ones that will be the higher outside pieces and it will go from 8.5' to 8' against the back wall. I'm likely to miter cut the angle and use 2x2s to connect the front and back 2x4. It's a few extra inches or 1.5" higher I can go not using a 2x4.

I am able to screw to long horizontal back piece to the rear supports but I want the entire front open. I truly think I can do the full 14.5' with no supports in front but I will find out eventually. If worse comes to worse I can make a center one and put a helmet there or an emblem lol

Measured and cut the outside front and back corners. I fit them to test and all looks good. These will get pre-drilled like all screw holes.

The plan is to build each tower with the four corner 2x4s and the lay the 2 large top shelf 1/2s in place. Since I can build it away from the wall and then push it into place I think it will go smooth. I hope it does at least.

Very Nice! Keep going! I think custom shelves are the best because you can fill the wall or space that you have. Looking forward to more updates.

Did one side boxes support pieces this morning. I laid all for boxes on the floor and this was the only one that didn't wobble but the rest are so slight it won’t matter or make them not level. The biggest was like 1/4 inch and it won’t matter. From the eye the look great.

Next move is to finish the other 3 boxes. I may or may not cover them right away. I would rather do the covers now instead of after I assemble everything but the top but my thinking is that I better hold off because I will have to route wiring and reach places to screw pieces together and so better wait. It won’t hurt or be anymore difficult to wait. I just won’t be able to cut or saw in the upstairs. Too much laying around and no need to get stuff dusty.

Ok I will get plenty done later tonight. I feel like the framing will go quickly up until I do the top area but before I get there I have 1/2 a room to move over and I am more than happy to do it.

I was able to get the 2 corners started with the help of my kids lol They are very helpful for holding the pieces. I had a plan to do it with the limited work space but before I even considered it I had one holding the 2x4s up and the other feeding me the screws.

I just measured the inner height on the pieces. I tell you what, I am pretty good just winging it but at times I am like hmm ok let me double check which we all know is a good idea. I am making the space big enough to hold a larger TV located in my house lol for the future. once this is done, I mean I can't just adjust it. I do however have the opposite wall and the opposite side of the stair case I can add more shelves to. I will keep the 4 large PAX shelves I have for a while on that wall.

It makes me think all the time what color I will panel this thing. Part of me wants the wood color or stained wood but I prefer the white formica look myself. I will strongly conside that as my covering due to the thin and light weight. The shelves I am still hunting for ideas as all the stuff I saw at Lowes is so heavy. Anyway I will post the pix from my phone soon. Thanks for reading as this is my first shelf build ever.

Looks great so far.

I also cut and pre-drilled the inner 2x4s that will support the 2 7.5' 2x4 rectangles that make up the top shelf. While I'm still not 100% on using 2 pieces finding a straight 16 footers is like mission impossible. Some 8 footers I thought were perfect have a bit of a curve. Nothing too bad but is cut down pieces it's not the worst but one 16' piece would be terrible.

Tomorrow I'll likely have the 2 lowers shelves up on each side with supports. I snagged l brackets to sucker the rear supports. Once it starts coming together more the pix will be the best explanation. Words can be impossible to understand with projects like these.

After the next part of the build was completed I decided these things do not need any support. I likely could used smaller wood lol

I put my full weight and it didn't budge so there's no way 4-5 statues are in danger. This thing is solid as frak.

I'll do the other side later.

Diggin' it

Very nice, tagging along.
PS: You are not safe, apparently a death star is breaking into the room.