How to Hang a Shelf

Shelves are an excellent way to display pictures and nick knacks. Shelves also can help define a style of a room. Hanging a shelf is easy once you figure out a few things.

First, what type of wall are you placing the shelf on? Is it drywall or sheetrock, plaster, wood, or concrete? Each surface has its own challenges.

Next you need your shelf. Most people purchase shelving from a home-improvement store. These usually come with brackets to support and attach the shelf to the wall. They usually also come with screws and wall anchors (an all in one purchase).

Finally you need to determine where you are going to hand the shelf.

Tools required

First gather the tools you will need. A carpenters level, screw driver, drill and drill bits, pencil and tape measure should be all you need to do the job correctly.

Hanging the shelf

To start hanging the shelf, measure out from the corner of the wall to determine where the edge of the shelf should be. Once you have that, carefully determine where you want the bottom edge of the shelf to sit. Using a pencil, mark the bottom and side edge and then extend the bottom line horizontally using a carpenter's level as a guide.

Once you have that line, place the top of each bracket on the pencil line and mark the attachment holes on the wall with the pencil. Set the bracket aside. You usually will want to space out the brackets and the shelf instructions will tell you how far apart they need to be. Knowing how far apart they need to be will allow you to determine where you need to position them on the wall.

For drywall, sheetrock, plaster and wood, you can use a standard drill bit. If it's concrete, then you will need to use a special drill bit designed to work with concrete. First test drill the holes with a small bit to see if you drill into a stud (never happens for me). Be careful not to drill into the wall too deep, you just want to go through the wall surface. If there is no stud use the hollow-wall anchors that came with the kit. Use a larger drill bit to drill out the hole and place the wall anchor into the hole. Be sure to not make the hole too large or the wall anchor will not seat correctly. It should be snug to push into the hole and rest flush to the surface of the wall.

Now screw in the screws to the wall anchors and secure the brackets to the wall.

Finally place your shelf on top, and screw the shelf into the bracket.

On a do it yourself scale from 1 (easy) to 10 (difficult), this comes in at a 2 due to the need for a level and drill.