Building My Floating Shelves for my DREAM PANTRY
If Part 1 of this pantry makeover taught me anything, it’s that confidence is built one drawer at a time. After finishing the lower cabinets— my little ode to vintage farmer’s crates—I should have felt ready to take on anything. But Part 2 humbled me in a new, oddly quiet way.
This portion of the project?
Floating shelves.
My first time attempting them.
And for someone who still prefers her husband to hang picture frames, this was… ambitious.
But I’ve learned something in the last few years of sawdust and power tools: I do my best work when I’m a little terrified.
When Demo Day Reveals a Gift You Didn’t Expect
The funny thing about this pantry is that it wasn’t “broken.” It actually held a shocking amount of food. The problem was visual chaos—crowded shelves, no breathing room, zero white space. The labels helped, but you can only organize your way out of a bad layout for so long.
When we emptied everything out, we discovered the real culprit: the strange little bump-outs on the back wall were fake. Not structural. Just there to support the shelves someone else designed and built.
They took up 10 feet of space!
But once they were gone, the room expanded. Suddenly the pantry became a blank page I could rewrite with clean lines, better flow, and the calm, minimal look I’d always imagined.
Floating Shelves: A New Skill, A New Fear
Here’s the thing that makes me laugh: I became a woodworker and struggle with basic math. Not joking—I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until my 40s, and only after that did I discover I probably also have dyscalculia.
Fractions, decimals, percentages…anything number-y? My brain simply does not compute.
So how does someone who can’t do math end up building, well anything?
Short answer: stubbornness and determination.
Long answer: ask Google or the husband!
A friend sent me a video from Duncwood explaining three types of floating shelves, and after watching it, I knew I wanted the most challenging option: fully mitered edges. Because of course I did.
Sometimes I think woodworking chose me purely for its irony.
My engineer husband still can’t understand how I function without understanding math.
(We’re both very curious to see how our daughter turns out.)
If you’re someone who does something simply because it makes you feel alive—even when you’re not naturally good at it—I’d love to hear. You are my people.
Ripping Boards, Sharp Edges, and Imperfect Reality
Before a single shelf went on the wall, there was lumber to cut. Two sheets of white oak plywood. Each shelf needed a top, a bottom, and a front piece—six shelves total.
Ed, my teacher at Woodcraft, gave me two hours.
Two hours to rip down everything.
Did I fuss over perfect grain matching?
Not this time.
You’ll know, I’ll know, but the pantry won’t care.
The edges weren’t perfect, either. It’s almost impossible to feed full length sheets of plywood into a table saw with slow, consistent pressure at the blade. They were sharp though. I cut myself loading the pieces back in my car. I knew I’d need to sand, filli, and blend, but they worked! .
One thing I wish more builders shared? The awkward parts.
The parts you can’t do alone.
The parts that require circus-level flipping or an extra pair of hands.
In every tutorial I watched, the hardest moments mysteriously vanished in quick jump cuts.
In real life? Those moments are plenty—and sweaty.
Letting the Pros Drill Holes (Because Plumbing Is Terrifying)
Let me confess something: I’m terrified of putting holes in my walls. Truly. Hanging art feels like commitment; drilling into the wall that separates my pantry from our laundry room—where mysterious plumbing snakes through like a maze—that felt like signing a liability waiver.
So I hired our contractors to install the Shelfology brackets.
Seven hundred dollars’ worth of brackets plus a few hundred more for the install = peace of mind.
Once the brackets were up, we marked their exact locations so I could add additional supports without accidentally hitting the shelf brackets. Then came the part that surprised me: the miters actually looked good. Better than expected, which always feels like a tiny woodworking miracle.
Meanwhile, Across the Hall… Pantry #2 Needed Love Too
You didn’t see this part in Part 1, but I actually have another pantry directly across from the main one. It’s where the cleaning supplies and non-food items live, and it suffered from its own special kind of awkwardness.
Shelves too short.
A weird recessed corner on the right.
Brackets that blocked half the usable space.
And yet—I was less afraid of tackling this one because my intern was there. This wall had no plumbing, yet I still didn’t drill any holes.
I handed him the drill (no shame), taught him how to edge-band shelves, and while he worked inside the air-conditioning, I sweated outside in our California garage testing Rubio Monocoat in the color “Smoke.” It didn’t drastically change the birch, but it removed enough yellow to feel worth it.
The Final Cuts, the Final Brackets, the Final Shelf
Each shelf was trimmed as we went along.
The first shelf fit too easy. Like, surprisingly easy. The 2nd one was the most challenging. The back wall was not even close to being straight…and it was way too much work to scribe the entire 92” back edge The 6th and final shelf - was SHORT. Like 1/2” too short. It’s also the only one I measured and marked. I was devistated. Not only was it a pretty big mistake - I was tired. And hot. And I just wanted to be done for the day.
Instead, I’m cutting off a 1/2” piece of shelf, gluing, wood filling the seam, sanding and applying Rubio Monocoat to a 1/2” strip.
I didn’t even look through to find the exact cut off to grain match. I should have stopped and continued the next day, but I NEEDED to just finish this. Today.
And I had to add it to the side you’ll see. You know why? I couldn’t flip the shelf. The brackets I installed hit the brackets in the wall. I was devastated.
But I got it all pulled together.
And just like that…the pantry is complete.
Floating shelves, custom drawers, new layout, new energy.
A space that finally matches the calm, clean aesthetic I’ve been craving.
Now comes the fun part. Stocking the shelves.
Thank you for following along on this two-part journey. Next up?
My daughter’s closet. (Pray for me.)
Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/DYAsKWO8IEM
Until next time, be brave, my friends,
Esterina
