On those DIY programs on TV then they make the tasks look so quick and easy, but there is a lot more to the tasks than they show on the program. For example putting up a shelf, this is the kind of DIY task that people try themselves, and on TV they would do it in 2 minutes, but when you try to copy them at home then it ends up either crooked, or just falls off the wall when you put anything on it!

The first thing you need to consider is how much weight the shelf with take, then you need to buy a kit that can take that kind of weight. If you are putting books on it then books are really heavy so you are going to need thick brackets and strong wood for the shelf. You can get fancy shelves with no visible brackets, or ones with fancy twirled brackets etc, but often they sacrifice strength for design so they are only good for light loads.

Once you have your kit then you need to find somewhere suitable to position it on the wall, make sure you think about if there are any pipes or cables behind where you want to mount it. There are devices on the market which promise to find cables and pipes in your wall, and they can also find wood that you can secure to, but they are not always reliable. So look for sockets and light switches that will have cables going to them, and try to get a clear area.

Once you are happy that you have done your best to avoid places for cable and pipe drops then you need to think about how to fix the bracket to the wall. With a brick wall you have it easy and you can just drill a hole and put a rawplug in to get a good fixing, with a stud wall then you are going to struggle a lot more. You can get dedicated plasterboard fixings, but they won’t be able to take a great amount of weight, instead you are better off looking for the studs in the wall that you can screw into, that will give a good fixing.

When you know how you are going to fix it then secure one hole in one of the brackets and then we can get a level. Get someone to help you at this point and one of you hold the shelf up on top of the bracket you have loosely secured, as well as holding the second bracket up near where that should go. Then put a spirit level on the top and move it all so it is level, then the second person can use a pencil to mark the 3 remaining fixing holes you should have. Then you can secure those last holes so both brackets are up, then secure the shelf to the brackets if you can, and test it to see it can hold some weight, then you can admire your new shelf!

If you are serious about DIY then you need to get yourself a decent cordless drill like the Makita BDF452HW drill set from Amazon.com.


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