Torsion box floating shelf

An executive at one of my commercial clients, an advertising agency in Chelsea, contacted me and asked, "Dan, can you build me a floating shelf for my pictures?"  Having built his entire office out of Baltic Birch multi-ply he wanted his floating shelf to match the rest of the furniture.  It took a couple days of building and a day of finishing to complete this shelf and I couldn't be happier with the result.  It has an intricate internal gridwork that provides an amazing amount of strength and rigidity while allowing the shelf to support a lot of weight.  The front lip prevents framed artwork from sliding off and the entire shelf can easily be removed from its hidden mount if/when he ever decides to do so.  Another great project and a fun exploration of the torsion box floating shelf design.

Did I mention that we didn't use a single nail or screw in the entire piece?  The beauty of the torsion box design is that it's internal gridwork, when properly built, is strong enough for a grown man to stand on and doesn't require any mechanical reinforcement in assembly, just glue.