Suspended Shelving

When it comes to basic storage and display shelving, you’re never short on options. You can choose from adjustable shelf systems with metal tracks, shelves that fit into corners, cantilevered shelves, cable-hung shelves, and, of course, the standard plank-and-bracket variety. But here’s a shelf design you probably haven’t thought of, and you certainly won’t find kits for it at the local home center (although you can get all of the necessary parts there): it’s a simple wooden shelf suspended at one or more corners by a length of threaded rod, or all-thread.

This suspended shelf not only looks cool, it’s also a lot more versatile than pretty much anything else out there. Because this system relies on the ceiling for support, your shelves can extend almost any distance from the wall. Standard brackets, by contrast, allow for only about 12" of extension. An all-thread shelf can also hang independently of a wall, so it can go anywhere, much like cable-hung shelving. But unlike cable systems, all-thread shelves are rigid and thus more secure than cables, which can swing if bumped into. Better still, the parts for all-thread shelves are much less expensive than the specialty hardware needed for cable-hung shelving.

On the following pages, you’ll learn the basic techniques for building and hanging a fully suspended shelf. The photos on page 135 show how to install shelves that hang from the wall, as well as large corner shelves that would be impractical to do with brackets. From there, you can adapt the all-thread system to create custom shelves in almost any location. As you’ll see in the construction steps, all you need is a ceiling joist or two, and you can hang a shelf.