David wrote:
Hi
I want to put up a large-ish bookshelf, along the following
'pigeonhole' design. I want to make it from maple-effect contiboard
to match other furniture in the room. Whole assembly will be about 5
foot square, with 9" shelves and struts, 12" separation (don't need to
be adjustable). Will need to support fairly heavy files & books etc.

I know contiboard isn't the ideal solution for this, but it will look
and work fine for me provided there's enough support - which is my
question. What's my best option for fixing to the wall? My thought
was that the bottom shelf wants to be mounted as firmly as possible,
using large angle brackets directly below the vertical separators;
then I could get away with much smaller mounts for the upper shelves
since much of the weight would be borne by the vertical separators.

I'd like the (visible) supports for the upper shelves to be as
unobtrusive as possible - any suggestions please? (ISTR this may
have been covered in this NG a few months back but I'm darned if I can
track it down!)

I've built bookshelves all over our house (we have several thousand
books) to a standard design using pine shelving and 10mm dowelling as
the vertical supports. The oldest have been up for five years or so
now and show no signs of failing. To use contiboard shelving you'll
need more dowelling verticals but that should be all.

People always ask "is that dowelling strong enough to carry the
weight" but as it's just in compression it really isn't an issue.
Visitors are often impressed by the apparent fragility and lightness of
the construction.

I have a pair of dowels at about 60-70cm intervals, one a couple of cm
from the front of the shelf and one a couple of cm from the back.
Most of the shelves run right down to floor level and for these I have
a bottom shelf that actually rests on the floor and has blind holes to
support the dowels so the weight of the books rests on the floor. A
fairly lightweight fixing to the wall is then all that's needed to
prevent the whole lot tipping forwards. The shelves are simply
screwed to the dowels, I don't find visible screws obtrusive but you
could cover them if you wanted.

For shelves which are supported wholly by the wall I've taken
different approaches according to the situation. On one I've fixed
the bottom shelf firmly with triangular wooden supports underneath, on
another I have effectively hung it from the ceiling.

--
Chris Green )