How to Make a Simple Shelf Hung With a French Cleat.

This instructable shows how I used an old oak table leaf to construct a simple yet durable wall shelf which is hung using a french cleat. I know there are lots of intructables about how to make a shelf, but I am particularly fond of the french cleat hanging method due to it's simple construction and how much easier it is to hang a shelf.

Needed:
Some scrap lumber
1/4" wood dowels
wood or hot glue
sandpaper
tape measure or ruler
saw (preferably with a tilting table or blade to allow for angled cuts such as band or table saw)
drill
stain
wood screws

Here are a couple of the oak table leaves I found in my attic which were missing the rest to make a table.

The leaves were about 12" wide and several feet long so first I cut the leaves into 15" lengths.

I then cut the 15" length so that I now had 2 15" x 6" surfaces.

Now cut several 1"x3/4"x9" strip(s), depending on the number of shelves you plan on building. I cut more than enough because spares never hurt.

Next I cut the strip(s) at a 45 degree angle leaving a 1/4" area to drill holes in for mounting. This will make more sense later.

I took a 12"x6" length of wood and cut it in half to make two 6"x6" square pieces. I did this because I am making several shelves. You could simply cut one 6" piece.

Using a pencil I measured and drew the lines to make the side support brackets. I decided on a triangle using slightly different dimensions for each side. They are as follows: 4-1/2"x5-1/2"x6-1/2" The bottom I cut so that it is flat and does not come to a point. Again the pictures are worth at least several sentences.

Cutting the first angle. I decided to cut the inside out and make the angles 3/4" and 1" to keep in the spirit of making this using a bunch of different dimensions. I should also point out the lack of point at the bottom is 1" wide as well.

What's an easy way to make sure that both sides would be the same? Trace the first one of course!
When cutting the traced second side be sure to cut directly on the line to ensure a nice duplication.

In this picture I am rounding the edges with my basic 1/2" round over router bit. I only rounded the top front, left and right side. All other exposed edges I sanded lightly using my large dremel sanding drum so that the edges had a slight uneven round to them.

I gave the edges of the sides a slight round by using my dremel sanding drum. Since these were table leaves in a previous life they have a fairly heavy dark finish on them. Initially I was going to sand them bare, refinish and polyurethane them but then decided to dull the finish by lightly sanding with 80 grit paper and than stain with Old English dark touch up stain. Here I am sanding.

I then flipped the shelf top upside down and center the angle cut 9" piece so that the angled portion faces the front. Using a 1/4" wood drill bit I drilled 1 hole on each side so that they went completely through the angled piece and 1/4" into the shelf top. I secured the angle piece using two 1" long pieces of wood dowel which I glued into each hole then sanded them even with the angled surface.

Cutting the wood dowel. Note: I sometimes disregard safe power tool practices during my projects. This pictures shows one of them. Cut your dowel by hand, with the use of a fence or other Safe means unlike the way I do it.

Here are the dowels glued in place and sanded even.

Using the same drill, cut dowel, and glue method I attached the side supports to the shelf top. Line each side up evenly, trace around the bottom using a pencil, then draw a line from each corner of the square to make an X. The middle of the X is where you drill the hole. Use this method on both the shelf top and the joining end of each support.

I then drilled 3 holes through the bottom of the mate to the angled piece. This piece has a flat 1/4" area which will be flush with the wall. This particular type of mounting bracket is called a French Cleat. It is simple and strong. As you can see I have the shelf stained at this point. I didn't get a picture of the staining process. Basically I just used a rag and wiped the whole thing with Old English stain and allowed it to dry.

To make sure that the shelf was level I held it in against the wall in the position where I wanted it hung and placed a level on top. I then drew two small lines at the bottom of the shelf cleat.

Next I screwed the bottom half of the cleat to the wall slightly covering the lines using three 3" multipurpose screws. I used a level once more before driving in the last screw.

Finally I simply slid the shelf down onto the cleat which is attached to the wall. The only thing I plan to do differently in the future is to countersink the screw holes and plug them after the cleat is mounted.
I think you'll find that while there are a few extra steps to make this type of mount, it pays off when it comes time to hang the shelf.