Using Barn Wood Floating Shelves to Accentuate Your Space

Whether you’re looking to create a modern farmhouse kitchen or you want a way to store items in your home office, floating wall shelves are a versatile option. Wall shelves can be used in many ways: to store items, to accent spaces and to enhance the home decor.

Floating shelves are a popular way to introduce these attributes because they take up less visual space than traditional shelving. When you choose a wooden shelf out of reclaimed barn wood, you not only get all the benefits, you also get the beauty and environmentally friendly attributes of reclaimed wood as well. And a wood wall shelf is an easy diy update that can truly transform a space!

Reclaimed Barn Wood Shelves

Reclaimed barn wood shelves started their life more than 100 years ago. They were cut, milled, and used to create barns and other old buildings. Many of the signs of their harvesting, milling and use are still visible on the surface of the wood. This includes rough saw marks from when the wood was first milled.

Despite their age, reclaimed wood floating shelves have decades or more of use left in them. They’ve been cleaned, cut and grouped by species and size. Now, they’re ready for use in a new environment where their unique marks, age and patina can enhance their surroundings, while they provide much-needed storage, or wall art, to your home or business.

Benefits of Floating Shelves

Rustic wood floating shelves have become increasingly popular in many areas over the last several years. They’re turning up in homes, restaurants and offices and they come in a wide range of sizes and styles.

In a small space like a kitchen, wall shelves give you necessary storage, but visually open up the space. For areas that need visible storage, but don’t necessarily have a lot of room, such as restaurant bars, consignment shops and small boutique stores, solid wood floating shelves let you display your items or wall art, but take up a fraction of the space of a full-sized cabinet.

They’re also more versatile. You can install a floating wooden shelf exactly where you need it. Rather than having a large cabinet taking up space in your dining room with shelves at set intervals, floating shelves let you customize the placement for your space, such as corner shelves. Whether you need a few wall shelves to display some accent items, or you need some serious storage, rustic wood floating shelves are a great alternative to their metal shelf counterparts.

Design Ideas For a Barnwood Floating Shelf

Salvaged wood floating shelves are used much in the same way as newer materials. They’re just as heavy duty and versatile, but come with a few added benefits. Reclaimed barn wood has a history and character that can’t be matched by newer materials. This adds some interest to your space, as well as depth. The saw marks and patina that show on the reclaimed wood floating shelves can be used as a contrast for a more contemporary setting, or they can fit right into a more rustic establishment.

In addition, reclaimed wood is more environmentally friendly than newer materials. No new trees are harvested to produce them, and they aren’t made of plastics or other materials that won’t break down at the end of their life.

Reclaimed wood shelving doesn’t need to be confined to use in the kitchen. With the rich color and interest that reclaimed barn wood floating shelves bring, they’re able to visually enhance many areas. Consider updating your living room to increase storage space, or an entryway can utilize more narrow wall shelves for interesting wall decor. 

Installing wooden shelves as a bookshelf to line the backs of niches can double or triple the amount of usable storage space. They blend in well with a variety of other materials used to create niches, including fieldstone and brick. DIY bookcases can also be installed in a home office to create a more natural aesthetic. Wall shelves don’t have to be rustic; they can also be refined to give a home office a more modern appeal.

If you want a more subtle look, consider installing them on a wood paneled wall. Wood-on-wood has a depth that combined materials often lack. The patina on the shelving lets the barn wood stand out against any paneling, but it gives the area a very cohesive look that’s soothing to view.

Floating shelves don’t have to be hung on their own. While it does give the area a very contemporary look, they also work well with shelf brackets. While hidden brackets can help give strength without notice, a metal bracket can help you create a more unique look. 

A dark-colored bracket not only lets you contrast the wood, but it also lets you introduce other colors nearby. For example, replacing your cabinetry with floating shelves and metal brackets lets you match the color to a dark countertop. This contrast between two surfaces and the blending of two others is what produces depth in a design. And with the many shapes and styles of brackets available, you can further customize your shelving to get the wall decor you’re after.

Install Reclaimed Barn Wood Shelving in Your Space

Reclaimed barn wood shelves are beautiful, versatile and eco-friendly. They come in several lengths and widths, and all of them will show the age, wear, and beauty of their past life. Pay a visit to Elmwood Reclaimed Timber to find out more, and include these dynamic shelves in your interior design.