How to Put Up A Shelf – Our Guide

A great way to add storage to your home is by putting up shelving so that you can make full use of all your wall space.

You might be running out of floor space and want to make use of the walls in your home by putting up shelving. But if you’ve never put up shelves before then you might be left wondering how you go about it and what you might need. It is a fairly straightforward task although there are different types of shelving that you can put up in your home. We have put together a guide on how to put up a shelf in your home and what tools you might need for the process.

What Do I Need?

In order to hang shelves in your home, you will still need some tools to make sure that your shelves are securely fastened to the wall and can support the weight. You will need to screw any shelf to the wall so you will need the following;

Consider Your Walls

If you’re buying a shelf and bracket as a pack, then it is likely they will also provide screws and wall plugs for the shelving too. However, you should consider what type of walls you are planning on mounting your shelving on, as these plugs will not be suitable for all walls. For lightweight block, stud walls, plasterboard or partition walls, you will need a different type of wall plug to hang your shelving as normal wall plugs won’t support it. You can find different types of wall plugs in large hardware stores, ask someone for help if you can’t find them.

*Top Tip: Use a pipe detector to find out if your walls have and pipes or electrical wire where you are planning on mounting your shelves.

Putting Up a Shelf

Once you have been through all of these checks you should now be ready to put up your shelving. Make a mark on the wall with a pencil where the bottom of your shelf will be. Once you have done this you will need to mark out where you are putting the brackets. This can differ depending on what sort of brackets you are using, but for traditional brackets, you should mark them out below the bottom of your shelf. You should get measurements to mark out with the shelf to ensure that the shelf doesn’t bow in any place. However, if you opt for a floating shelf, the brackets are inside the shelf itself which means it should be in a similar place to where you want the bottom of the shelf.

Drilling and Screwing

Once you have marked the holes for your bracket and have a good idea of where it should be going then you should now be ready to drill holes in the wall. Using your drill and a masonry drill bit. Drill holes in the wall to place your wall plugs. If your drew has a screwdriver function then you should be able to screw your brackets into the wall, if not do so by hand but make sure the brackets are tight. Once the brackets are up all that’s left to do is fix the shelf itself to the brackets, which you should be able to do by hand.