Small Floating Shelves for Bedside Space

When we did our most recent bedroom refresh, one thing I wanted to do was update our bedside lamps. We had two matching ones, and then one broke, so we were making do with two non-matching ones. In replacing them, I also wanted to open up some space on our bedside. I went back and forth with myself about whether or not to do wall mount lighting, or stick with traditional nightstand lamps and go a little smaller. I decided to combine the best of both worlds, and create small floating shelves for our bedside lamps right above our regular nightstands. This would solve our problem by opening up space and raising the areas of light.

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They were super easy and inexpensive to make. I will note the lamp I am using on them are extremely lightweight. I wouldn’t put a heavy lamp on them. I also made sure out lamps have a wide base so they wouldn’t be wobbly. There is a product called museum putty that can also be used to secure them further at the base so they don’t tip over.

I used a $6 -6 foot long piece of 12 ” wide dimensional lumber, and had the boards cut to size at Home Depot to about 2 inches wider than my lamp shade on each side, so each board is about 11 in x 12 in. I had wood leftover for another project!

I stained the boards, added small notch at the back for the cord to pass through by the wall, and heavy duty “L” brackets. I wanted to make sure the shelves and lamp had enough support. These are the two shelves back to back. I did that as a measurement when I added my “L” brackets to make sure they were in the same place on both boards.