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I am quite an amateur when it comes to woodworking, but I am very pragmatic and have done as much research as I can think to do so I don't mess anything up. But I can't really find anything to suggest if this idea holds any water (or any weight at all)

Basically I am building a wall-mounted shelving unit with half-lap joints that will (hopefully) look something like this: CAD Design

To attach the splines to the wall I want it to be as sleek as possible, and I came up with the idea to use IKEA's Ekby Bjärnum on their side on the top and bottom of each spline. (You can see the pictures below)

Now my question is if this will completely compromise the load that the Ekby Bjärnum can hold? IKEA claims that they can hold 15kg, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was a low estimate.

The wall I'm going to attach to is very sturdy and I'm going to be using (at least) 80mm screws. enter image description here enter image description here

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    This is not really answerable with the data available. No matter how many Answers are posted you're only going to get guesses, which are really of little value (no matter whether they're educated guesses). Obviously to begin with nobody knows what the Ikea brackets can hold oriented differently, but that's only one variable and not the most important — the fasteners and where every one of them are fixed is. On a typical wall some screws will go into studs (good) but most will miss studs and just go through the plasterboard (not so good). If you don't have a studwork wall what is it? – Graphus Aug 10 '18 at 12:58
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    "I want it to be as sleek as possible" Forget the Ekby Bjärnum, you don't need them. The sleekest options are hidden fixings and those already exist, Google keyhole hangers as a starting point (there are a few similar systems). But again your wall material and the fasteners chosen will determine the max possible load. – Graphus Aug 10 '18 at 13:02
  • Just for reference, this type of wall shelving is called "Hungarian shelves". The real beauty of it is that it does not need any hardware. The vertical cleats are screwed directly into the wall studs. – SaSSafraS1232 Aug 10 '18 at 15:58
  • Thanks, everyone. I had a complete brainfart and didn't realize I should screw the standards into the wall behind the half-lap joinery. Thanks for all the help, guys! – thatvineyard Aug 10 '18 at 19:20
  • Everyone is right about the standards being screwed directly into the wall, but if anyone is determined to do this in the future, I'd suggest you add a screw to the end of the bracket, which would mitigate the tendency of the bracket to pull down (and eventually out) under load. One would need to drill and countersink the bracket, of course. – Aloysius Defenestrate Aug 11 '18 at 15:01
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Assuming your vertical pieces (standards) are on studs, I would drill through them and run a long screw into the stud. It should hide everything. If you want to use the brackets from Ikea for decoration, you could but I don't think you'd have to.

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  • This is totally the way to go. The only thing to add is that you'll need to countersink/counterbore the holes for the screws, since they'd typically be under the half-lap joinery. – SaSSafraS1232 Aug 10 '18 at 16:01
  • Oh man I feel stupid. I didn't realize you should screw through the joint-part of the standard. Now it clicked. Thanks a lot for the help! – thatvineyard Aug 10 '18 at 19:20
  • @thatvineyard Don't feel stupid. Some of us got our experience by doing dumb things and learning from it. Some by asking the right questions. I'm happy that you're getting experience by asking the right questions. – CharlieHorse Aug 13 '18 at 14:37
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Keep in mind that the 15 kg might be for a set of two and that you now have to add the weight of all the shelves. I think 15 kg is low also. I dont think this is a crazy idea overall.

other things to keep in mind (more aesthetic though) are that the brackets leave the shelf suspended away from the wall by a couple mm, and that the brackets are made for fairly thick wood - 30 mm maybe. If you don't fill the slot, it will look a little strange.

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