Removable shelf?

[Andrew Wayland]

I have a lally column in my basement that I'm trimming up to match my bar. I have encased it in a plywood box.

Im going to add a stile and rail overlay to dress it all up.

I'd like to add some sort of removable shelf to it: but I can't seem to find brackets that I feel are suitable for the job (I don't want to see them when the shelf is removed)

I'm curious though if my solution will work:

im thinking of simply adding a 3/4" gap between the rails that the shelf will fit into. (Essentially the board I use as a shelf will slide into the 3/4" gap... When I don't want the shelf I'll slip in a 3/4" trim piece).


My concern is the gap shrinking and swelling with humidity change: and if it would be significant enough to consider this a terrible idea!

[Evan Stewart]

You could probably use floating shelf hardware . The only issue I would see is that you would be using the as it appears the plywood as an anchor which would limit the weight the shelf could support.

[Jamie Buxton]

Could the shelf be a U-shaped piece of plywood? It would slide into your gaps along three faces of the column. The U shape gives a lot longer lever arm to hold up the shelf than what I thing you're proposing.

[Andrew Wayland]

Could the shelf be a U-shaped piece of plywood? It would slide into your gaps along three faces of the column. The U shape gives a lot longer lever arm to hold up the shelf than what I thing you're proposing.

I was thinking U-shaped.... or maybe even two U snapped pieces to make a shelf all the way around (joined with dowels or something).

I was was also thinking about mounting brackets the the shelf itself to rest on the lally-column to give me added support.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Perhaps a shelf could be incorporated into the encasement which could be tilted up with use of a bracket when needed.

[Andrew Wayland]

Perhaps a shelf could be incorporated into the encasement which could be tilted up with use of a bracket when needed.

I considered this as an option too... however the lally column box that I had constructed is only about 6" wide... so the options are limited...