Brighten up your study with a DIY wall shelf

If, like us, you want to put up shelving across an entire wall, you'll need three large plywood boards, each of which will serve as backboards for your DIY wall shelves. The boards should be 105 x 70 cm (L x W).

You'll need 10 wooden slats (70 x 3.7 cm) per shelf. The slats need to be mounted with care to ensure that shelf boards can fit between them. You can create the shelf boards by sawing smooth-edged planks of Douglas fir, for example: their reddish tone will contrast nicely against the white background of the slats and backboard once they have been painted. You can cut the shelf boards to different sizes depending on what you need to use them for – for completely customised shelving.

For example, for our three wall shelves, we measured out three boards spanning the entire width of the backboard (70 cm). Then we cut out 50 cm, 35 cm, 20 cm sizes and we also made some shorter boards (15 cm).

Have you measured out the shelf boards and marked out the lines you want to saw along? Use screw clamps to hold the first piece of wood you want to cut firmly in place and put on your protective gear. Then cut along the marked lines.

Tip: The NanoBlade saw has an adapter for vacuum cleaners like the EasyVac 3 , which removes sawdust straight away.

To ensure the sawn-off edges of your pieces of wood are free from splinters, sand them down thoroughly. Attach the rectangular sanding plate and 120-grit sanding paper to your multi-sander. For best results, secure the wood using screw clamps. You can also sand down all of the plywood board and wooden slats to prepare them for painting.

To make your shelves stand out, paint the plywood boards and wooden slats in a colour of your choice. Protect the floor while painting by using a protective sheet or floor covering. Put on work gloves, ear defenders, safety goggles and a face mask to avoid inhaling any paint dust. Apply the paint evenly in rows and let it dry.

Now it's time to make the wooden support strips for the wall shelf. Pre-drill holes for the screws, to make sure the thin slats don't crack. To make sure you position the screws at exactly the same points on all the slats, you can make a drilling template from one slat. Mark holes along the slat, ensuring they are 10 cm away from the edge and 15 cm apart. Place the slat with the markings on a white slat and secure both against the wall shelf using screw clamps. Fit the wood drill bit on the cordless combi drill and drill the holes using the drilling template. Do the same with the remaining wooden slats.

Screw the wooden slats onto the white plywood board to build your wall shelf. Start at the bottom end of the board and tightly screw in the first slat using the pre-drilled holes and matching screws. To complete the support strip, position the second slat, taking into account the thickness of the shelf board (in our case, 2.7 cm). Hold the shelf board in place using screw clamps and screw in the second slat. Follow the same procedure to mount the other support strips on your wall shelf.

To make sure the support strips are the correct distance apart, you can use a laser rangefinder to measure the distance between the edges of the slats. Note that this only works when the slats are at least 15 cm apart.

Tip: if all the support strips are positioned at the same height, you can also stack all three shelves one on top of one other, if you like.

To make sure your shelf stays securely on the wall, mark the points where you want to insert the screws and pre-drill the holes accordingly. Measure 15 cm from the edge of the backboard, then work out the midpoint between the wooden slats – and then add a point for each screw. Once you've done this, place the cordless combi drill on the wood and pre-drill each hole.

It's almost time to mount your DIY shelf on the wall. It's best to work out the points to mount the shelves at the very beginning using a cross-line laser. Using the Quigo Plus , you can measure the height of the wall shelf correctly and hang it up straight, and you can also ensure the distances are spaced evenly. The further away the cross-line laser is from the wall, the further apart the laser crosses will be. Drill the holes using an impact drill or a cordless rotary hammer (depending on the type of wall).

To ensure you can drill safely , use a digital detection device to check the points you want to drill for electricity cables or water pipes. Once you have drilled a hole, insert the matching wall plug. Then you can screw in the wall shelf. It's best if you can ask another person to help you at this point.

After all the hard work, here's the easy bit: decorating your DIY wall shelf. You can decorate each shelf however you like, depending on whether it's in your study or bedroom. You can use the shelves to display family photos, books or vases of flowers. Storage boxes for items like pens also work well on your DIY wall shelf. And the best thing about the support strip design is that you can rearrange the shelf boards as often as you like depending on how you want them to look.

Now that your wall shelf is complete, why not take a look at our 7 tips on how you can quickly and easily introduce more colour into your living room?