The choice of floating shelf mounting hardware is an essential decision you can make while floating a shelf. It basically has everything riding on it.
The floating shelf bracket, in particular, is responsible for a floating shelf’s capacity to operate under stress and over time. When you are doing a mounting project all by yourself, it also makes or breaks the overall installation by making or breaking your life simpler or tougher. As a result, make an informed decision.
It’s vital to select the right floating mounting shelf hardware. Despite their invisibility, is just as crucial to the quality of your new floating shelf as the wood you pick.
These are the features of hardware for floating shelf mounting that we’ve discovered to be the most beneficial in terms of performance and simplicity of installation:
Solid and Stable Construction
The rods of high-strength mounting hardware are sunk into the flat bar of the bracket and welded all the way around it on the rear. Face welding is a significantly superior construction approach in terms of both strength and simplicity of usage.
Screwed or bolted-together brackets are likewise inferior to solid 360-degree welded floating shelf brackets. Any of these designs left wiggle in the completed shelf, and the weight capacity was nothing near that of a welded version.
Large Diameter for Support Rods
Most real-life scenarios, such as 12″ deep shelves with dishes or books on them, maybe handled with a 3/4″ diameter rod. Shelf depths in the kitchen are typically 12 inches, whereas living room/bookshelves are often 10 inches. A rod with a diameter of 3/4″ will easily handle both.
You won’t be able to dig as deep or hold as much if you use smaller rods like 5/8″ or 1/2″. You may go deeper by using bigger diameter rods. You see what I mean.
Sufficient Number of Rods
It doesn’t make sense to hold a shelf 70″ long with shelf hardware that has two rods. Greater rods mean more strength, and 70″ is a long distance to cram more rods (strength) into a shelf.
As the bracket becomes longer, look for floating shelf mounting hardware with several rods. Using the same example, a 70″ long shelf should have 4 to 5 rods to fully hold all of the weight that may be placed on that length of the shelf.
Reliable Bracket Material
Thinner steel bends more easily, whereas thicker steel can resist more stress and weight. In this scenario, larger is typically preferable. Look for back bars that are at least 1/4″ thick and as broad as your shelf thickness allows. This reduces twisting and torsional flex. Torsional flex is undesirable in a floating shelf bracket because it causes the shelf to droop more quickly under load.
Appropriately Sized Shelf Brackets
Use a floating shelf mounting hardware that’s the right size for your shelf. The goal is to have as much steel behind your shelf as possible without it revealing. Consider size in two dimensions: length and breadth.
To begin, think about length. As a general guideline, your bracket should be 2″-4″ shorter than your shelf length. This implies it will pass through as many anchor points on the wall as feasible. More anchoring points on the wall means more strength. Make use of all of them.
Then there’s the issue of width. This is the measurement of the flat back against the wall. This size is crucial and contributes significantly to the strength of a floating shelf bracket. You want as much width as possible without exceeding the shelf’s thickness.
The whole goal is to disguise it while being extremely powerful. The greatest guideline to follow is to keep the rear bar of your floating shelf bracket 1/2″ smaller than the thickness of your shelf. For instance, if you’re floating a 2″ thick shelf, the optimum shelf bracket should have a 1-1/2″ wide flat back bar.
Confidently Pick the Proper Floating Shelf Mounting Hardware
Everyone loves the modern and simple look of the floating shelf. And if you have been out looking for floating shelf brackets, you have seen that there is quite a variety out there. When choosing floating shelf hardware, keep in mind the characteristics you’ve learned above so that it won’t lead to disappointments.