One Sheet of Plywood Floating Shelf

We wanted to upgrade the shelving in Steph's Lego room which we did by building a 9' long 3' tall floating shelf. It provides lots of storage for decor and books or, in Steph's case, a place for large and small Lego set display.

Watch the video for step-by-step instruction on how we put the floating shelf together from one sheet of plywood.

We started with one sheet of 3/4" plywood which we had cut in half at The Home Depot so it would fit into the car. We also used Kreg pocket hole screws, wood glue, and Minwax clear spray. Check out the materials list and tools used on our website post for further details.

One halve was cut into (4) 3' lengths and the other into (4) 4' by 1' lengths in our shop. We used a Kreg Rip Cut Jig on our circular saw to keep the cuts nice and straight. We then cut (9) 12" x 12" squares. Six of these are the sides of the cubes and the other three are the backs.

After cutting all the pieces everything was sanded with 120 and 220 grit sandpaper.

Pocket holes were made in the (9) 12" x 12" squares. The six squares making up the cubes each got six pocket holes and the backs got one in each side of the square. The six squares were then glued and screwed into the 3' boards. All the pieces were laid on the floor creating the cube. This space was measured so that it was 12" square, clamped and then everything screwed into place. The exposed pocket holes were filled with natural color wood putty.

Once the sides were in place, the cube backs were attached.

We wanted a natural look so we finished the shelf with a couple of coats of Minwax clear lacquer. We are using a spray shelter to contain any overspray.

Before we could hang the shelf, we had to remove the existing Lego room shelving, repair damage to the wall, and repaint.

We are using French cleats to hang the shelving. This is our go-to method for hanging heavy objects on the wall. We've used lots of them and have never had a failure. Each French cleat has two parts, one goes on the object and the other on the wall. We attached our cleats to the back of each of the three cube sections. It took a little trial and error to be sure the cleats were all seated properly. We actually used a Milwaukee Inspection Camera to look behind the shelf to see what was going on. On our first attempt we found the middle was one correct but the other two were not. With a little finessing, we got it all lined up and securely in place!

The best part is styling the shelf. We styled it as if you had it in a living room or bedroom with decor and books. We then styled it with its intended purpose of Lego sets. There is plenty of room to store all kinds of Lego sets as well as building instructions and manuals.

For more details please visit our website!