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DIY Floating Shelf with Secret Storage

Claudia Dew
5-6 minutes

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD
provided the Paslode brad nailer used in this post.

A gift from a friend of eight old worn card catalogue drawer fronts inspired this project. Another friend
suggested we make shelves with them, so that’s what we did! The floating shelves were not initially designed to
have a secret storage space, but towards the end of the build we realized we had the perfect opportunity to build
in a secret compartment. Ours will hold a secret stash of candy!

All of the measurements for the shelf were based on the width of four of the drawer fronts. All this is Poplar
wood and cut to the above lengths.
All of the cuts were made on a miter saw. After all the cuts were made, everything was given a light sanding
with 220 grit sandpaper.

The shelf can be stained or painted. We used this red oak stain which complemented the vintage drawer fronts.
All the pieces were stained prior to assembly.

To keep the four drawer fronts together, a length of 1.5" wide poplar was glued to the backs of the drawer
fronts.
The finished shelf will be hung on the wall with a French cleat. A French cleat has two parts--one part goes on
the shelf and the other on the wall.

Assembly started with the sides being attached to the bottom and top of the shelf.
Wood glue was used on all the edges, clamped into place and then brad nailed to hold it all together.

To do that, we inset the back piece the amount the

We wanted the finished shelf to lay perfectly flat French cleat extended from the back which was about
against the wall. 1/4".
We were able to try out the Paslode Finish Brad Nailer on this project. This is the third brad nailer we've used
and it proved to have the most striking power and accuracy. It's well balanced and fits into smaller spaces than
most nailers.

It's easy to load, but because it has a smaller profile it

It's battery powered but also uses a fuel cell to gives it an doesn't hold as many nails so it's necessary to reload
extra burst of power. more often.
It was at this point that we realized that we could actually make a hidden compartment in the shelf. We
brainstormed some ideas on how to attach the front and decided to use rare earth magnets attached to both the
shelf frame and front as a way to open and close the box securely. Here Steph is marking the placement of the
magnets on the box frame.

To be sure all the holes had the same depth, a piece of We put e6000 into a craft syringe so we could control
duct tape was put on the Forstner bit as a guide. the amount of glue that went into each hole.
After gluing the magnets into the frame of the shelf, we marked the placement of the matching magnets on the
drawer front backs. Be sure to watch the video to see how we put the magnets into the holes.

We got a chance to try out the Bosch laser level when we got ready to put everything up on the wall. This
comes with a base, but you can also attach it to any tripod with a camera mount. The cool thing about it is the
self-leveling feature. Even if the tripod is not level, the Bosch will self-level itself!
The Bosch laser level projected lines on the wall
helping us to accurately place the wall part of the This is the front of the laser level. The lines are easy to
French cleat into place. see.
These little rustic floating shelves turned out so well. They are such a perfect addition to Steph’s living
room decor that they look like they should have always been there.

We debated about cleaning up the drawer fronts with sanding and stain but decided to just cosmetically
clean them and embrace their time worn character. The secret compartment was a happy accident and
the use of the rare earth magnets made it possible.

We acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with us to participate in the The Home Depot ProSpective
Campaign. As a part of the Program, we are receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for
the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are our own words. Our
post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal
Trade Commission guidelines.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours
may need a little different approach. Safety first!

FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP!