Wall shelves - IKEA or custom?

Nara

Doozergirl wrote: »

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

haha you hit the nail on the head there! He's always crying about how he cannot see all his DVD and he wants to be able to browse thro them to find the one he wants to watch, no way in 10 billion years would he let me throw the cases out ! :rotfl:

Personally my weakness is books, but I have a kindle now so I am slowly selling/giving away my stockpile, but no such luck with the DVD's:eek:

Doozergirl

Nara wrote: »

haha you hit the nail on the head there! He's always crying about how he cannot see all his DVD and he wants to be able to browse thro them to find the one he wants to watch, no way in 10 billion years would he let me throw the cases out ! :rotfl:

Personally my weakness is books, but I have a kindle now so I am slowly selling/giving away my stockpile, but no such luck with the DVD's:eek:

I can't compact my books into cases I love having books around; softness, smell, different colours, different sizes.

jennifernil

http://www.screwfix.com/cats/A333040/Ironmongery/Shelving-Systems/Shelving-Systems

We used these, easy to adjust the space between the shelves if your needs may change, plus you can get made up pine boards in various widths and lengths that you can varnish, stain or paint.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=pine+boards&x=0&y=0


Another option is "Contiboard", it comes in various, colours and widths, and used to come in 8 foot lengths last time we bought some.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=pine+boards&x=0&y=0

Seems only the white comes that long now.

ic

How heavy are the boxes that you want to store and what is the wall construction? Many shelving systems will not be capable of holding a substantial weight of paperwork, nor will a plasterboard wall be capable of taking it. I would not look to the Lack shelving that has been linked to above, the interior of those shelves is actually hollow, filled with cardboard. They're intended for relatively light loads.

The Ikea range "Ekby" would be better, as long as you're mounting to a brick wall. These brackets would do the trick: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90136136. If you have the option, personally I'd go for the billy bookcases which stand on the floor. This way all the weight is distributed downwards and to the floor, rather than pulling on the wall. Or another alternative would be to hang some kitchen cabinets.

MarySum

Thanks for all the advice, am getting a bit confused now! Am not the most DIY savvy person but am trying...

The walls we're attaching the shelves to are brick, it's a 30s flat. It has to be wall mounted shelving as it's to go above two desks. It's mainly for all my fabric and wool storage, which won't be hugely heavy (not as heavy as books), plus some paperwork and photos which could be heavier.

The contiboard looks good I think? I did look at the Ekby shelves with brackets but they don't fit the wall exactly, starting to think that might be the easiest way to go though. I don't mind getting these kind of brackets if they'll be stronger.

The idea was to get ones that fit the wall exactly but starting to think it might just be easier to go with IKEA... was looking at these Ekby shelves as it says they'll take 20kg.

fred7777

jennifernil wrote: »

Another option is "Contiboard", it comes in various, colours and widths, and used to come in 8 foot lengths last time we bought some.

I had 3 very long contiboard shelves in my last flat. I bought the longest board B&Q did then supported it with brackets on the wall. The shelves were mostly full of books and each shelf needed 5 brackets to stop any noticeable sagging.

avantra

Nara wrote: »

haha you hit the nail on the head there! He's always crying about how he cannot see all his DVD and he wants to be able to browse thro them to find the one he wants to watch, no way in 10 billion years would he let me throw the cases out ! :rotfl:

Personally my weakness is books, but I have a kindle now so I am slowly selling/giving away my stockpile, but no such luck with the DVD's:eek:

What he need is a large external Hard drive that he can connect to the TV.

Depending on your TV and how old it is, it might have a USB socket or HDMI socket.
He will need few weekends probably to rip the DVD's into the hard drive (google to see how).

Once he have all the DVD's on the hard drive he can hook this to the TV via a usb or HDMI cable.

Most external drives comes with some management interface that allow you to browse the content or search.

We have this setup running on a 1tb drive and the space taken is about the size of a fag packet.


You will need this and maybe this and this.

Less then £70 and no dust.

jennifernil

fred7777 wrote: »

I had 3 very long contiboard shelves in my last flat. I bought the longest board B&Q did then supported it with brackets on the wall. The shelves were mostly full of books and each shelf needed 5 brackets to stop any noticeable sagging.

For an 8 foot or 2400mm long shelf holding books I would say you need brackets at least every 600mm, so 5 brackets sounds correct.

jennifernil

MarySum wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice, am getting a bit confused now! Am not the most DIY savvy person but am trying...

The walls we're attaching the shelves to are brick, it's a 30s flat. It has to be wall mounted shelving as it's to go above two desks. It's mainly for all my fabric and wool storage, which won't be hugely heavy (not as heavy as books), plus some paperwork and photos which could be heavier.

The contiboard looks good I think? I did look at the Ekby shelves with brackets but they don't fit the wall exactly, starting to think that might be the easiest way to go though. I don't mind getting these kind of brackets if they'll be stronger.

The idea was to get ones that fit the wall exactly but starting to think it might just be easier to go with IKEA... was looking at these Ekby shelves as it says they'll take 20kg.

I think those brackets you linked to look pretty sturdy. However, I think having a shelf say 110cm long with only 2 brackets would be unsatisfactory, it would need 3 brackets.

If you want long shelves, it would be much easier to use long boards, as lining up the ends of shorter shelves supported on different sets of brackets is not so easy. Also, you do need to have brackets fairly near the ends, so you would end up with 2 brackets close together where the 2 shelves meet.

Personally, I would go with the pine boards I linked to. And sturdy brackets no more than 600mm apart, so you would need 5 for each long shelf.

Have you got furniture you want to match the colour to? You can get tinted varnish in lots of colours. Or you could keep the natural colour and finish with clear varnish or Danish Oil.

How deep are the shelves going to be?

MarySum

Thanks for advice - I think the shelves will be about 28cm deep. Having talked to my dad about it he recommended going for a track shelving system - where the shelves rest on brackets which are in uprights. We worked out we'd need at least 4 uprights. Going to the woodwork shop today to ask about pine boards. The floor is pine and it will be above pine veneer desks so might look okay - or possibly we'd want to paint them white, need to have a think...