A rectangular wooden material that has a length which is 2 to 3 times larger than the width is just a piece of wood to a random user, but for an experienced user, it’s a solution to hundreds of household problems.
When you hang or mount a piece of wood on your drawing room wall, you can keep decorative stuff like plants and show pieces on it.
When you hang or mount the same piece of wood in your living room, you can keep your books, magazine and pictures organized.
Following, in a kitchen room, it will make some extra storing areas for you to keep more cooking ingredients at your fingertips.
Also, you can create temporary storage for your occasional needs indoor as well as outdoor of your house using this wood board within just a few minutes.
Actually, a piece of wood can do miracles to your regular life when you turn it into a shelf; but for this, you need to choose the best wood for shelves. In other words, you have to choose the piece of wood that will stand alone with ultimate balance and strength carrying whatever kept on it around the year.
To help individuals like you, who are looking for some great pieces of wood for their storing or organizing needs, we made here a list of woods that are mainly used for the shelf. Along with the list, you will also get to know about detail features and benefits of each wood.
Later, you will also know about the installation and use of the wooden shelves that will make things easier and help you to be an efficient user.
Our Top Picks of Wood for Shelves:
- MyGift Wood for Floating Shelves
- Boho Wall Hanging Shelf‘s Wood
- Mkono Wood For Floating Shelf
- Joel’s Antiques Floating Wall Shelf Wood
- ParkCo Unfinished Wood For Floating Shelf
- Imperative Décor Floating Shelves’ Woods
- SOLID RUSTICS Handmade Rustic Wood
- DAKODA LOVE Wood Floating Shelves
- Rustic Re-Purposed Salvaged Solid Wood
- EI’S HomeWares Floating U Shelves Wood
Top 10 Best Wood for Shelves Reviews
Researching a good number of woods for shelves, we have enlisted here only five of them. Among these five wood pieces, you will find two different types.
Our first three wood pieces can be used for making floating shelves and other two can be used for both floating and mounting purposes. Considering the need variation of the people, we have suggested two different types of wood. Hopefully, you will find yours here. Let’s check.
1. MyGift Wood for Floating Shelves
- Featured with brown trendy outlook.
- Featured with preassembled rope and holes for quick installation.
- Twisted ropes provide strength to the boards.
- Boards can be installed in various decorative formations.
This pair of seventeen inches long wooden boards will add some extra spaces in your apartment. Now you can keep your personal stuff in an organized manner and make your living space even more arranged. Even if you are not much familiar with these decorative items of making shelves, you can still install, uninstall, and customize them with ease.
This set of woods for shelves is colored with brown. It is one of well-liked colors to persons around the world, especially when they choose furniture and decorative items. The reason behind this wide acceptability of this color is, it matches with any kind of bright color.
Each wood features with its individual jute made rope. The rope has four corners and a peak point where all the corners meet creating a triangle. With the help of this rope, you can install the board without making many holes on your walls, you may just need one, at most two holes to hang it.
Instead of screw-based installation, these woods feature hanging installation with rope. Having this facility, you can hang the boards as your wish considering your interior atmosphere and decoration. Multiple hanging facilities also aid in saving space or hanging within a limited space.
Each board has 17 inches of height and 5 inches of width. Considering our house appliances and decorative items, this is a quite good size to ensure proper room for their placement. In other words, you can keep anything on these boards that are smaller than the diameter of the boards.
2. Boho Wall Hanging Shelf‘s Wood
- Boards are shaped from premium mother wood.
- Comes with a simple yet elegant look.
- Manufactured for rope based easy installation.
- Versatile usability.
If you feel the need for space but find installing shelves’ woods difficult, you can choose these Boho floating woods. These boards are convenient to both install and replace. Apart from these, with their modern outlook and versatile usability, they will create new storing space for yourself that will also enhance the beauty of your house. Additionally, buying once, you will enjoy all the benefits around the years.
These floating shelves’ boards are made of 100 percent natural strong and solid pine wood. Because of this solidity, you can use a single pair of boards for a long time. Also, your boards will be in its original shape and formation irrespective of the weather condition around the year.
Overall the woods have a trendy outlook that will enlighten your house interior at the same time meet your storing requirements. Outside of these shelves’ woods is colored with rustic brown color, which perfectly visualizes the natural formation of the wood and gives the woods a minimalistic yet premium look.
If you own a single pair of hanging shelves’ woods, you can use them in multiple ways. Whether you use this additional storage to keep your book, magazine or placing home decorating items like plants, art, in every aspect, you will get stylish service from these wooden materials.
You probably have seen a type of shelves’ woods that require many holes to install, but choosing these boards, you at most need 2 holes. Moreover, as they come up with their own rope, you don’t even have to look for materials to hang them.
3. Mkono Wood for Floating Shelf
- Both ropes and boards have a stylish modern look.
- Multipurpose boards with a solid
- All ready boards for quick attachment on the wall or ceiling.
- Customizable rope for various setting
Mkono brings a wider pair of floating shelves’ woods for the users. If you are looking for a wider pair of wooden boards to keep your things arranged or decorate your living surroundings, you can go for these. With their 8-inch of wider width, you will enjoy premium, versatile service from these shelf materials for a long time.
These shelves boards are made of paulownia wood, which is well known for its quality. In the boards, the manufacturer also enables a protection feature called ‘anti-mildew’ as a result, your wooden sheets will never be moldy.
Usually, this type of boards is bought for decoration purposes, but even if you buy to decorate your rooms, you can use them for other purposes too. The rope-based hanging system will allow you to hang the boards on the wall of your kitchen, farmhouse, on the terrace, and other indoor and outdoor places.
Here the wooden sheets come with pre-assembled rope, so, after buying, all you have to do is, find a point to hang the boards. If you want to hang like a triangle, then one point will the enough for a board, otherwise one board will require at least two. Moreover, for installing, you don’t need any adhesive or tools.
During the installation time, if you wish you can minimize the length of the rope, it has a total length of 18-inch. This type of customization facility also allows you to hang your boards even in a limited area.
4. Joel’s Antiques Unfinished Wood for Sheves
- A perfect piece of wood for workaholic users.
- Provides ample room for personal designing and coloring.
- Offers innumerable options of use.
- Offers both types of installation facility.
Comparing with our previous selections, this shelf’s board is completely different in term of outlook, it’s a raw piece of wood. Among you, who are fond of the DIY projects can choose the board. Users of this wooden board will enjoy full freedom to customize the size, shape, design, and color according to their desires.
With 42-inch length, 7-inch width, and 3-inch depth the shelf’s board will make your magazine, plants, and pictures balanced around the days. This type of balanced structure will also fit with a wide range of walls, and you can use a single piece of wood in different places too.
It’s a board without any color or design but has a smooth finishing all over the body. Additionally, the wood features three coats of commercial poly. In a combination of both, you will get a smooth open surface to use according to your needs.
The shelf material is an out and out a natural piece of wood, so, if you are a DIY enthusiast, you can use this one for a good number of household needs apart from just making a hanging shelf. Additionally, as the board doesn’t have any artificial design or color, you can draw your favorite piece of art on it by the color you like.
Through this wooden shelf’s material has no pre-assembled rope or hole, you can install it without much hassle. Here the provider will give you bracket, hardware, and an instruction manual. Following the manual, you can both temporarily and permanently install the board.
5. ParkCo Unfinished Wood for Floating Shelf
- An authentic reclaimed piece of wood from Pennsylvania.
- Allows users hundred percent customization facility.
- Can be used for different purposes in different corners.
- Installation friendly piece of wood.
It’s another piece of natural looking wood piece for the individuals who care about the precision of their tasks, here you are free to bring any changes on the wood to make your desired shelf. Whether it is your bedroom needs or bathroom needs, this authentic fireplace mantel shelf’s board will always be your ultimate organizing partner.
The outer panel of this fireplace mantel shelf’s wood is finished with boiled linseed oil, which enhances its original look. As a result, in spite of being a raw piece of wood material, it has a smart outlook. Whatever purposes you use this board, it will create a decorative ambiance around it.
Just like our previous board, here you can also apply your favorite design and color. However, as this is a handcrafted board, you may notice markings, knots, waning, mortise pockets, but with simple furnishing, you can remove them.
The board has no predrilled screws, no angles, even no holes, you can just use it for your any kind of necessity. Owning just a single board, you can mount it on your wall for keeping your files or hang it in the kitchen for keeping kitchen stuff well-arranged. Basically, it can be one solution for your multiple necessities.
Unlike rope assembled board or angle attached board, there is no recommended specific installation method for this Parko rustic shelf’s board, you can hang it as well as permanently mount it on the wall. However, for any kind of installation, you will need some basic tools.
6. Imperative Décor Floating Shelves’ Woods
- These sleek, rustic woods are a good choice for living room, cooking room and washroom usages.
- With 9-kilogram weighing capacity, the woods will carry your cosmetics and photos confidently.
- These handcrafted woods will make sure that you get constant excellent service days after days.
- Anyone can install the shelves on their desired location just following the instruction manual.
According to some buyers, there is an issue with the woods that they buy for making shelves, that is they don’t smell good. For those buyers who are looking for woods that look good as well as smell nice, we bring you these pieces of woods from Imperative Décor. These boards for shelves function and smell good.
These 24-inch long sleek authentic ‘rough cut’ woods will add a rustic yet modern touch to the atmosphere of your bedroom, bathroom, office or kitchen. The boards will carry anything, whether it is your kitchen tool or bathroom cosmetics you put on the boards, stylishly all over the day.
Other than the good smell that makes a difference between a normal pair of woods with this pair is its installation system. For mounting it on the wall, you will get two separate anchors for each board. These anchors can easily hold 20lbs.
Installation of the boards will be an out and out hassle-free process. There is an instruction manual where every step is discussed in detail for users’ better understanding. Moreover, you don’t have to buy any additional tools for mounting, not even screws and plugs.
Each and every floating wood of this collection is hand stained and packaged in the USA. So, both of its outer finishing and holding capacity will be constant over time. Also, the boards are backed by warranty policy ensured by the supplier.
7. SOLID RUSTICS Handmade Rustic Wood
- This pair of handcrafted woods will ensure a long period of smooth service for their buyers.
- Wall mounting style ensures firm attachment of the shelves with the wall.
- The 24-inch long boards can be mounted in different ways for different interiors.
- Boards come with quick yet strong installation facility.
These rustic designed boards for floating shelves will add a classic vibe to your interior and meet your storing needs. You can use these woods for you regular sorting too; as a stand for showcasing your collected photographs, showpieces and bonsai plants. In every case, these handmade wood pieces will hold things with perfection.
A rich walnut stain finishing has been done on the overall body of these wooden materials. This finishing results in an out and out solid rustic look for the woods. Having this rustic design, you can easily hang these woods for shelves on any part of your decorated wall, they will be matched with your interior.
The woods feature an easy mounting technique, through which anyone with almost zero experience can install them on the wall. Also, the mounting hardware is included with the purchase. So, after receiving the boards from your supplier, you don’t have to look for any tool or expert to setup.
Every wood piece includes one piece of strong brackets with two extended points. Both the bracket and extended portion can strongly hold the wood with its carriage against the wall. Because of this bracket based installation, both mounting and removing of the wood become quick and effortless.
Besides establishing a strong attachment with the wall, this pair of woods will stand strong for your home and office storage needs around the year. The portion that primarily holds the belongings is also a part of durable mother wood.
8. DAKODA LOVE Wood Floating Shelves
- Hand wiped ‘bourbon color stain’ together with a ‘semi-gloss clear coat’ give the woods an aesthetic look.
- Boards are sourced from handcrafted furniture grade, dry kilned pine wood.
- Sturdy brackets allow the users to mount their shelves against any wall strongly.
- Choosing this one, you can also take part in the green movement as the manufacturer plants trees for each sale.
This pair of ‘Dakoda Love’ boards will be always ready to carry your comparatively heavy jar, show-pieces, flower plant, books and other things with ease.
Each board has an absolute 8-inch depth. So, if you are planning for making a shelf in your home for storing slightly weighty stuff, you can consider these wooden boards.
You already have known that these boards have an excellent carrying capacity, the reason behind this is, its super sturdy attachment. Unlike other boards, here the shelves will be mounted on the wall with the help of brackets that have many zigzag screws. These screws hold the brackets with the wall and the brackets firmly hold the shelves.
The brackets that are included with these boards for shelves also have robust design. Where most of the wall attached frames have two extended portions these boards have three, means more room for firm contact.
Almost all the shelves’ boards can be used for multiple purposes both in living spaces and inside the bathroom. However, as these wooden boards are capable of carrying some extra weight, users can use them for satisfying some other needs that normal woods can’t.
Apart from ensuring solid performance, the manufacturer also makes sure that the boards get utmost consistency in terms of aesthetics and durability. To ensure these qualities, maker sources, cuts, planes, joints, routes and sands the woods with the ultimate care in the house.
9. Rustic Re-Purposed Salvaged Solid Wood
- This real, solid, rustic wood gives you proper durability and multiple usabilities.
- Using the included gears, you can easily mount the board by yourself.
- Supplier offers a different combination of colors and sizes for people with different requirements.
- If you choose any bright color, it will work as a piece of décor for your house too.
You can choose your desired floating shelves’ boards from this manufacturer if you care much about the color of the shelves. This supplier has designed the outer layer of the boards with some nice colors, from where you can easily choose your favorite one. Along with the color variation, boards with different length, width and depth are also available.
You will need just a few minutes for the installation of the shelves’ wood. The installation also doesn’t require any prior experience. While purchasing the wood, you will get the necessary brackets and screws together with the woods.
The maker gave special attention to the sturdiness and craftsmanship while crafting this board. As a result, users can keep different kind of things with different weight on it mounting just a single shelf on a particular corner of the house. You can also uninstall and re-install the same board to a different space easily.
As this type of floating shelves is mounted against the living, cooking or bathroom wall, it is necessary that the woods should have a matching finishing with the wall interior. Choosing this provider, you will get a good number of colors like yellow, pink, Jacobean and different size choices.
Here the woods are crafted by human hands with special care in the USA. Just like other USA manufactured products, you will enjoy years-long service from this wooden shelves’ board.
10. EI’S HomeWares Floating U Shelves Wood
- These MDF & laminate made board will add both charm and space to your house.
- Both color and design easily match with any modern and classic interior.
- The sheets allow you to mount them following different stylish arrangements.
- Boards come with all the necessaries for a painless installation.
This time we have chosen a completely different shape of wood for making shelves. These are best floating U Shelves’ boards. We have chosen this type of shelves’ material for the user who always wants to be unique and different from the others. Additionally, because of the unique U-shape, your stuff will also be safe on these woods.
These boards are the perfect blend of fashion and function. Mounting the board on the wall, you can easily create extra space for your books, magazine, showpiece and photos. Interestingly, without the carriage, the shelves look even stylish just like a piece of decor on the wall.
All the three boards of our selection have ‘espresso finish’ color. The color has a dark tone and a modern appeal. Having these, it doesn’t matter how your living rooms, kitchen or bathroom interior is, the board will be a good selection for your decoration.t looking at the shape of the boards. But, the truth is, anyone can hang them on the wall easily. You will get all the necessary fittings and screws with your deal.
You already have got that these are the shelves with a very unique look. Because of this look, you can also arrange each board following different stylish patterns. However, having 5 to 6 boards, you can even create a stylish area on your wall that will have a modern architectural magnificence and also satisfy your storing desires.
Additional Review:
Best Metal and Wood Industrial Shelves
Homissue 4-Tier Industrial Style Wood and Metal Shelf
- This Homissue shelf comes with rock-solid construction and a raw aesthetic look.
- The sturdy frame along with wood will stand strong to meet your needs for a long time.
- Moving facility allows you to use this single shelf for multiple purposes in multiple locations.
- Metal cross back and anti-slip pads will always keep your shelf in place.
Are you looking for a shelf that can be easily moved from one corner to another without the need of uninstallation? Then, you can try this Industrial style shelf from the manufacture Homissue. It’s a shelf with four individual tiers and a strong metal frame. Once you assemble it, you don’t have to uninstall for placing to a different corner of your house.
You can place this shelf any corner of your house as per your needs. Interestingly, wherever you place the shelf, it will add some aesthetic appeal to that ambiance with its vintage industrial style. It’s a shelf for the style-conscious people.
Anyone sees the shelf can assume the sturdiness of it. The tier part is constructed with durable MDF, which is one of the best woods for pantry shelves. And, the frame is the product of robust metal. After all, you will get years-long solid service from this shelf.
The entire construction of this Homissue’s creation can bear about 280 lbs. of weight! This capacity is just more than the necessary for a shelf. Just because of this excellent weight-bearing capability, you can use this shelf for innumerable daily needs.
The rock-solid construction of the shelf helps itself to be balanced on the ground. The manufacturer also assembles anti-slip pads under each leg for extra safety. These pads help the shelf to acquire balance while protecting the floors.
You may love to read : How to hang floating shelves without brackets
FAQ’s about Shelves Woods
We have reviewed 12 of the best wood for shelves and discussed how they can solve your day to day storing, decoration and arranging problems.
But, sometimes only knowing about the products’ details doesn’t make a person a successful buyer. To help you make a wise choice of wood for making your shelf, we have answered here 5 of most repeatedly asked questions about shelf woods.
Go through this section, you will hopefully have a clearer understanding of these solutions.
1. How to install a shelf without brackets?
Answer: Brackets are commonly used to install the shelf on the wall. However, if you don’t have brackets or you don’t want to use brackets on your decorated wall, you can follow below strategies to install your shelf.
- Installing Shelf by Hanging
Hanging can be the best option if you want to avoid the brackets for installing a shelf. For this type of installation, the shelf’s board must have Pre assembled holes and rope.
However, if the board doesn’t have any hole still you can hang it, but for this, you have to make the holes on the four corners of the board and attach a rope with the holes. To hang any board, firstly assemble all ends of the rope at a point, then put the assembled rope on to the screw or angle.
- Customizing an Untouched Board
You already got to know that there are some raw boards available out there. Customizing these boards by yourself, if you wish, you can install them on the wall by brackets as well as without them. Here we will teach you how you install without the help of any brackets.
For this type of installation, you have to cut down the wooden board into two pieces by length, where a part of the board will be ¾ of the total board. In the larger part of the board, you have to make three to four holes along the depth wall side. At the same time, the smaller part will have three to four extended sticks according to the size of the holes.
After mounting the smaller part on the wall, you can easily connect the large part with the smaller one with the help of those holes and sticks. Finally, you need to put a safety screw on any point of the joints for preventing any accidental detachment.
2. How to install/hang a shelf on drywall without studs?
Answer: Without the help of any kind of studs, shelf installation is also possible. Just before this question, we have discussed 2 effective ways of installing a shelf, so if you wish you can follow them, those strategies also do not require any studs. However, if you want to know more installation approaches, you can follow the below two too.
- Installation by Brackets
Mounting shelf with the help of brackets is a kind of permanent installation and this type of installation must have any hard support.
To mount shelf using the brackets, at first you have to make few holes on the wall according to the holes of the brackets. Before drilling, you can point out the locations of the holes on the wall using a pencil.
After preparing the wall, you need to mount the brackets first with the necessary screws. Finally, you have to connect the shelf’s woods on those installed brackets with the help of screws and drill/hammer.
- Installation by Angles
A wide range of angles with various shapes and sizes are available in the market. Using these angles, you can also mount your shelf on the wall.
Mounting by angles is almost similar to the mounting by brackets. Apply the same process here too. At the very first stage you have to prepare the wall then mount the angles on the wall, and at the final step, attach the shelf’s boards with the mounted angles.
However, while choosing this angle method for installation, you must be careful about the angle shape and size. For getting an accurate angle, you can do a demo installation on the area where you will finally install the shelf.
3. Which type of wooden board will be best for me?
Based on the installation process, wooden boards are classified into two types, one is hanging shelf’s board, another is wall mounted shelf’s board. Here both types are good for the people with different needs and arrangement, ‘which shelf will be best for you’ it depends on some factors, two of those dominant factors are discussed below.
- Availability of Space
For the wall installation, you must require a permanent open place where you can do all the installation steps comfortably. On the other hand, if the place where you will install your shelf has hurdles around it, you can choose hanging shelf’s board for your need.
- Purpose of Use
There are some necessities of people that can be met by either hanging shelf or mounted shelf, but there some other needs, that are fulfilled greatly by a specific type of shelf.
For example, if you want to use your shelf for your day to day storing, or keeping some large or weighty stuff, the wall mounted shelf will be preferable for you. On another aspect, if you want to create a temporary storing facility inside of your kitchen or bathroom for keeping your belongings, a hanging shelf will be enough for you.
However, these two are the common criteria that help people to decide a particular type of shelf, still, if you wish, you can use either of them for your wants. In a nutshell, wall mounted shelves provide a tough and permanent solution and other good as a temporary solution.
4. Can I mount a floating shelf directly on the wall?
Answer: Yes, you can do that. You can even do the reverse too. For hanging a mounted shelf, you have to make holes preciously in the shelf’s wood, and for mounting a floating shelf you have to remove the rope.
In each case, you can apply furnishing materials to remove the old holes of the wood.
However, in the market you will also get some shelf materials that are totally untouched condition, buying them, you can use as your choice.
5. What are some popular wooden shelves formations?
Answer: You can install your shelf in different formations according to your choice. Around the world, different types of formations and shapes are noticed for both hanging shelf and mounted shelf.
Between these two, the user gets more room to show his creativity with a mounted shelf. We have mentioned some popular designs below for both hanging and mounted shelves.
Popular Designs of Mounted Shelf
- Parallel shape.
- Square shape.
- Rectangle shape.
- ‘L’ shape.
- Scatter shape.
Popular Designs of Hanging Shelf
- Triangle shape.
- Parallel shape.
- House shape.
You may also read: Best Wind Chimes For Home
Conclusion
What will happen when you buy the best wood for shelves? The simple answer is, you don’t have to spend money buying a new one for years, you can use same board interchangeably like hanging-mounting-hanging-mounting, and you can use the same piece of wood for your other needs except the storing.
However, as you have gone through all of our words from the beginning to this point, we are confident that you will be able to choose the best board and enjoy all these benefits from it.
This is Autem Decker. Main Author of ‘TheHomeDigs‘. You may not find her on the list of top 10 contemporary Canadian interior designers, but everyone who knows her says she was born to be an interior designer.
She makes her plan in her head and draws them in her years-old diary with a note in the corner. The way she plays with color and shape amazes us.
Connect Her On – Twitter