Wall shelves - IKEA or custom?

MarySum

I want to put up about 3 rows of wall shelves above two desks in our home, to hold craft supplies in boxes, filing, paperwork, photos etc. I've priced it up at IKEA, and it would cost just under £100 (half of which is the brackets) for their cheapest MDF shelves. For each row, I'd put together two of their 119cm wide shelves to form one big shelf, which wouldn't fit exactly into the wall space however (which is 244cm wide).

My question is whether it would cost substantially more to get shelves cut to fit exactly, and who would do this? It seems fairly cheap to get brackets at places like Screwfix, but their shelves aren't long enough and are made of the same stuff as IKEA.

If it's a bit more money and fairly easy I think it would be worth it to get ones that fit exactly and would hopefully last longer. If it's loads more than maybe not...

MX5huggy

Sheet materials comes in exactly 244cm x 122cm sheets, get a 25mm thick sheet cut into 4 strips at a timber merchants.

Ply would be about £70, MDF £30

MarySum

Wow - that's interesting, had no idea. Wouldn't a 244 cm long shelf start to sag though? Would it be better to cut it in two halves? I don't mind how many brackets we have to put along it.

MX5huggy

If you put enough brackets it won't sag any more than 2 short sections, I would be inclined to run a batten all the way along the back an bit of 2 x 1 (50mm x 25mm), these would be industrial shelves, functional.

Doozergirl

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60103632

Six of those is £61.20.

Or buy the piece of MDF. You can front them with another piece placed at a right angle to hide the battens at the back. We've done that in chimney breast alcoves and then caulked in at the sides and painted them the same colour as the walls to make the shelves look more posh

MarySum

Thanks very much - I don't really understand what that means but I'm hoping my boyfriend will. It sounds like extremely useful advice, I will take it along when I go to the local woodworking supplies shop!

MarySum

Thanks for posting the IKEA ones - but we don't want floating shelves as they might have a bit of weight on them. Was thinking about getting the normal IKEA ones but if we can get ones that fit between the walls exactly for not that much more it would be worth it.

Nara

Handy post!

Been after some shelves for ages for my bf's massive collection of DVD's, he has soooo many that no unit would have room for them all, plus our house is small so shelves are the only option.

Planning a trip to Ikea next month so will take a look at these altho they look small, would prolly need about 50 of them lol.

DVD's are heavy too, so if anyone else has any recommendations that would be great!

Doozergirl

Nara wrote: »

Handy post!

Been after some shelves for ages for my bf's massive collection of DVD's, he has soooo many that no unit would have room for them all, plus our house is small so shelves are the only option.

Planning a trip to Ikea next month so will take a look at these altho they look small, would prolly need about 50 of them lol.

DVD's are heavy too, so if anyone else has any recommendations that would be great!

I got fed up with it in our house. I bought lots of these and got rid of the cases of all our CDs, games and DVDs. It was such a relief to get so many into a small space, they now take up a fraction of one shelf instead of us being overrun with them, and the kids have their own ones in their rooms. I don't consider DVDs to be interior design features!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carry-Case-Disc-Wallet-Holder-Storage-Folder-200-CD-DVD-/200573368266?pt=UK_Home_Garden_CD_DVDStorage_SM&hash=item2eb31ab7ca

Or you can buy proper lightweight DVD shelves which attach to the wall if he really loves looking at them.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70115521

27col

Stiffen up the front edge as suggested by D-G and you have a very substantial shelf. Thicker looking shelves always look better, I think. With battens round three sides and a thickened front edge you would probably not need to go as thick as 25mm MDF.

leveller2911

If you go to a good timber merchant/importer you can buy 10x5 sheets of MDF and also MFMDF (MELAMINE faced mdf ) in a variety of colours..