by J. W. Nusz

Created on: May 26, 2009

One of the easiest ways to eliminate room clutter is to install a hanging shelf. By moving random knick-knacks and other light decorations from the furniture to the shelf, you can effectively create a lot of space (for new knick-knacks and other light decorations). This article will take a look at making and hanging a shelf for your new stuff!

Choosing a Shelf

Take a trip to your local hardware or home improvement store. You will likely see an aisle with nothing but shelves and accompanying brackets. Some shelves are made of wood, other metal - the same goes for brackets. How do you choose?

Choose a shelving material based on your needs. If you plan to place heavy objects on your shelf, you don't want plastic - consider metal or heavy wood. Also, if choosing wood, determine whether the weight of what you plan to put on the shelf requires a hard or soft wood. Just because pine is cheap doesn't mean it will be a great new home for your bowling ball collection.

Next, choose materials based on appearance. If installing a wood shelf, know whether you want to stain and finish or paint the shelf. Wood that is easily stainable includes hardwoods like oak, while woods that do better with a natural look (they don't take stain well) include softwoods like pine. If you want to paint any material, make sure to choose the proper primer and paint products.

Choosing a Location

You can't just hang a shelf anywhere you choose. While this may seem obvious, check possible locations for size. If the shelf is too large for the area, you will have to find a different space. Don't laugh - because wood shelving is often pre-painted or stained and sold in predetermined lengths, buyers can get the wrong size easily!

Next, locate studs on the wall you want to hang the shelf. Make sure that there are enough studs and in proper locations to install the shelf. If you cannot hang the shelf properly on studs, you can guarantee that it will fall. Drywall cannot bear weight like wooden studs can, and you really don't want to deal with patching a huge gash in your drywall.

Installing the Shelf

The final step includes installing the brackets and shelf. Install each bracket onto the stud properly using a level to make sure that the entire project is even. Finally, attach the shelf to the brackets!

As a final note, before putting too much weight on the shelf, test it! Having priceless glass antiques shatter on the floor is much worse than pulling your new shelf off the wall because it was flimsy!

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