Shelving experts

[dizzydo]

I have a space above my patio doors that is not very deep but there would just about be enough room for a shelf for cookery books. However there is not enough depth to hang brackets midway to support it (length is two patio doors width). What's that shelving called that has a baton thingy that you screw to the wall and it just slots in. Or am I dreaming . Tried to google but cant find it anywhere

floating shelf? Don't think they're particularly strong though.

oh thanks Pootle

Do you mean the type (Ikea does them) where they look like they have no support?

If so, I have one and it's pretty strong but fitting it was a nightmare - so many holes to drill in exactly a straight line. Dh gave up and filled in the holes again and we paid someone to do it!

The strength of the shelf sort of depends on the strength on the wall...

We had one in our bedroom and it was in a solid wall and was really good however one in DD room is on a partition wall and has only soft toys and light ornaments... If it is an outside wall should be fine but use a spirit level to get it straight.

Thanks for that Grapefruit and Clarice. We should be ok as is an outside wall but will beware of getting it straight. Will arm DH with Spirit level.

They look great but not sure if the floating shelves will be strong enough to hold a load of books. My dp made mine (he's a carpenter by trade) and used some sort of chemical glue to hold the metal bars in the wall and built the shelves around the bars (if that makes sense), because I wanted cook books on them he said the ones you wget in the shops aren't strong enough.