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Not long after my beautiful wife and I bought our house I discovered a nice looking oak table leaf in our walk-in attic. I hadn’t really looked any further since then nor thought much about it until about a month ago (due to being so crazy busy with all the things involved with the purchase of a forclosure).
I finally decided that I should take a look and see what kind of lumber was laying around in the old attic. As it turned out, there were actually 3 oak table leaves. So after careful examination and much contemplation I decided that they would make nice shelves. The ends of the leaves were split so obviously they would no longer meet the requisite role of table leaves. Without further ado here is the lowdown on my low cost shelves.

Many different tools and materials can be used in this type of project depending on what is available to you. I used the following:
table saw, band saw, router with 1/2″ round over bit, dremel with a large sanding drum, electric drill with 1/4″ wood bit, 80 grit sandpaper, wood glue, 1/4 pine dowel, Old English dark walnut touch up stain, and a few old oak table leaves I found in my attic.

1. Here are a couple of the leaves I found.

2. First I cut the leaves into 15″ lengths.

3. Next I cut the 15″ length in half so that they are 15″x6″.

4. Now cut a 1″x3/4″x9″ strip(s) depending on the number of shelves you plan on building.

5. Next I cut the strip(s) at a 45 degree angle leaving a 1/4″ area to drill holes in for mounting. This will make more sense later.

6. I took a 12″x6″ length of wood and cut it in half to make two 6″x6″ square pieces. I did this because I am making several shelves. You could simply cut on 6″ piece.

7. Using a pencil I measured and drew the lines to make the side support brackets. I decided on a triangle using slightly different dimensions for each side. They are as follows: 4-1/2″x5-1/2″x6-1/2″ The bottom I cut so that it is flat and does not come to a point. Again the pictures are worth at least several sentences.

8. Cutting the first angle.

This shot is a little more clear.

9. I then decided to cut the inside out and make the angles 3/4″ and 1″ to keep in the spirit of making this using a bunch of different dimensions. I should also point out the lack of point at the bottom is 1″ wide as well.

10. What’s an easy way to make sure that both sides would be the same? Trace the first one of course!

11. When cutting the traced second side be sure to cut directly on the line to ensure a nice duplication.

12. Numero dos. Cut.

Here are both sides.

13. In this picture I am rounding the edges with my basic 1/2″ round over router bit. I only rounded the top front, left and right side. All other exposed edges I sanded lightly using my large dremel sanding drum so that the edges had a slight uneven round to them.

Here are the only routed edges.

This picture shows the edges I gave a slight round using my dremel sanding drum.

14. Since these were table leaves in a previous life they have a fairly heavy dark finish on them. Initially I was going to sand them bare, refinish and polyurethane them but then decided to dull the finish by lightly sanding with 80 grit paper and than stain with Old English dark touch up stain. Here I am sanding.

15. I then flipped the shelf top upside down and center the angle cut 9″ piece so that the angled portion faces the front. Using a 1/4″ wood drill bit I drilled 1 hole on each side so that they went completely through the angled piece and 1/4+” into the shelf top. I secured the angle piece using to 1″ long pieces of wood dowel which I glued into each hole then sanded them even with the angled surface.

Cutting the wood dowel. Note: I sometimes disregard safe power tool practices during my projects. This pictures shows one of them. Cut your dowel by hand, with the use of a fence or other Safe means unlike the way I do it.

Here are the dowels glued in place and sanded even.

16. Using the same drill, cut dowel, and glue method I attached the side supports to the shelf top. Line each side up evenly, trace around the bottom using a pencil, then draw a line from each corner of the square to make an X. The middle of the X is where you drill the hole. Use this method on both the shelf top and the joining end of each support.

17. I then drilled 3 holes through the bottom of the mate to the angled piece. This piece has a flat 1/4″ area which will be flush with the wall. This particular type of mounting bracket is called a French Cleat. It is simple and strong.

This is a better picture showing the piece to be mounted to the wall. It will attach directly to the wall in the direction shown and then the opposing bracket which is attached to the shelf slides down on top securing the shelf.

18. To make sure that the shelf was level I held it in against the wall in the position where I wanted it hung and placed a level on top. I then drew two small lines at the bottom of the shelf cleat.

The Lines.

19. Next I screwed the bottom half of the cleat to the wall slightly covering the lines using three 3″ multipurpose screws.

Making sure it is completely level before driving that last screw.

20. Finally I simply slid the shelf down onto the cleat which is attached to the wall.

An angled view.

This was my first time using a French Cleat on a shelf and I must say I really like how much easier it is to hang a shelf. A couple extra steps are well worth the final result. The only thing I would would still like to do is pick up a counter sink bit and a plug making bit so that I can make the screws invisible.