-
I'm pretty pleased with them - the battens look better painted grey (and even more so with books on).
We used spare floorboards to make the battens which are only half an inch thick. I was a bit worried they'd be too thin but the timber for the shelves is solid as a rock (some teak from my dad) and the combination of the super hard bricks they're drilled into along with these screws means it's not coming down in a hurry. They're also not too chunky looking for the size of the alcove.
The biggest problem I had was actually cutting the timber to fit the wonky walls. If you go close and look from above each shelf - there's between 1 and 4mm of gap between the wood and the wall. The walls warp in all directions all the way along so we were never going to get it slotted in perfectly.
I'm fairly tempted to put some filler in, then sand and paint over but depends how patient I'm feeling.
@hoefla chipboard will be a pain so if you can try and get hold of a pull saw like the one in the first photo - you'll get a much finer line than a normal saw if you're using hand tools. If you're using a circular saw or something then make sure it's got a very high tooth count on the blade. Ideally as sharp as possible (so a new blade really).
You could also try going a couple of mil over your target and sanding or planing down though sanding will be fiddly with chipboard if it's even remotely damp.
@Aroogah Burmese :)
CYOA-
I was thinking of just using a chisel... but actually the way easier thing to do would be to have the batten sit in the lower corner rather than in the middle, so then using a saw to notch the corner out might work and would leave more material above taking the load. Might try that. Are your battens hardwood then?
Also, those screws just look like regular screws... but if they work then great!
hoefla
I got a floating shelf off freecycle. It's a few cm wider than one of our fireside niches so thinking about trimming the ends and fitting it right in. It'd be better with support at the ends, since it has one of those pronged supports at the back the obvious thing would be to slide it onto small battens at the sides, but I'm not totally convinced of my ability to cut tidy rebates in chipboard and not fuck it up. @CYOA that looks pretty good with them visible on the sides...