Custom Floating Shelves - Updated

This custom steel floating shelf was a simple project, but not without its head-scratching. When I last wrote about this bit of metalcraft, back in December, this is where I left off. It was Christmas time, after all, and I wanted to outrun santa, so I elected for install the Saturday before Christmas.

In my last post on this shelf, I wrote of a simple welded steel skeleton structure that would bolt to the wall, be leveled, and then ensure the shelf itself was plumb and square when attached.

Here is a great image of that steel skeleton.

Each round bar you see running through the middle of the shelf is part of the skeleton, intented to stabilize and align everything true… the system ultimately worked like a charm, but first, its Christmas gift to my foreman and I was a little bit of a headache!

Here is the one headache from the day…a series of bolts, seized by the powder coating process. This little gem of a video of my foreman trying his level best to break-free a siezed bolt. It ended up taking both of us and a breaker bar, but the finished work was worth every moment of frustration. In all, this was a very smooth install, and we were rewarded for our efforts with a cool, clean, modern industrial aesthetic for this Minneapolis salon. What a pleasure to get to complete this for them. Over the summer, I completed the custom corten steel sign you see above the shelf, as well as the steel “backsplash” you can see behind the hairwash stations. Each of these elements worked together beautifully; I have to commend the owners for their eye for design.