What material would be best for alcove shelving

nubsj

The alcoves are 92cm wide. I want 3 shelves of roughly 20cm deep for books

One about 30cm deep then a wide one about 40 cm deep to use as a sort of desk

I've looked on the b&q website. There is redwood planks. White wood planks. Furniture board which is a bit pricey or would I be better using mdf? Or is there something else that would be better?

I'm a bit of a novice in case you hadn't guessed

WLM21

Wood is best.
If you opt for a chipboard type product, you will need strengthening timber to the front and rear, otherwise the shelves will sag in the middle.

nubsj

Thanks, yes that makes sense

Would anyone know what the difference between this:
http://m.wickes.co.uk/mt/www.wickes.co.uk/sheet-materials/timberboard/icat/mfcptimboard/#navmfcptimboard
Kind of wood
And this:
http://m.wickes.co.uk/mt/www.wickes.co.uk/timber/planed-whitewood/icat/planedwhitewood/#navplanedwhitewood
And this:
http://m.wickes.co.uk/mt/www.wickes.co.uk/timber/planed-redwood/icat/planedredwood/#navplanedredwood

manda1205

We have put lots of shelves in all our alcoves, we just went to our local timber yard and got them to cut pine boards exactly to our sizes(they also have lots of different thickness' to suit). I then gave them a rub down, undercoat and finished with satin paint in white. My hubby put three batons edging each side of alcove (2x1") which I also painted white.

nubsj

That sounds just the ticket manda

Can you remember roughly how much it cost you?

Totting up the options above works out as over £200 and would result in quite a lot of wastage

Now to find a timber yard....

pinkteapot

I also used a local independent timber guy. I was just putting shelves inside built-in cupboards, so used thick MDF and did put a strengthening baton under the front edge of each shelf (then painted the whole thing).

The guy cut them to my measurements (mm perfect) and it was cheaper than B&Q, who said they had something ridiculous like +/- 15mm on their cutting! As I needed them to be the right size to fit inside a cupboard, that was no use at all.

I rang a couple of timber places in the Yellow Pages and got prices.

manda1205

Ours have cost us around £4-6 a shelf, for the wood. The 2x1 batons we get free as hubby gets them in packaging at work, but don't expect that to cost many £s. The paint I bought was around £10, but I also painted a wardrobe too. I did 1 undercoat of emulsion (I didn't bother to water it) and then 2 coast of satin. I started with a brush but then changed to a foam roller which gave a brilliant finish. I've also varnished some in our living room, but now much prefer the white finish I did in our bedroom. When we worked out costings it was loads cheaper to go to a timber yard, as there is no wastage and you can go and pick exactly what wood you want.
Just a thought on the depth though, our local place only had one measurement 22cm, so to get a bigger depth we had to place two planks in the gap if you get me.

cyclonebri1

The previous advice is forgetting the obvious
It's not the shelving that matters but how it is supported.

What I'm saying is that the brackets that are to support the shelves will determine what can be used as shelves.

If you put rack type steel supports on the back wall supporting a quarter of the way in from each end, you can use thinner/weaker shelves than if you are only supporting at each end.

An example;

I have an alcove mounted shelve system holding my vinyl collection.
Several levels and about 1.4 mtrs wide.

Across the front edge of each shelf there is a 1.5" x 1.5" x 1/4" bms angle bolted to the wall and keeping the whole lot anchored up there

If you want to make a statement go to a proper timber yard, one that reclaims timbers. 2" thick reclaimed boards will need no intermediate support over that width.