Advice on wood to use for shelves.

I am going to be building "floating" shelves in my room to hold my DVD's. I have just under 500 in total, and want to make the shelves about 3.5 feet long, hopefully an inch thick, and about 5.5-6 inches deep. I plan on allowing 8 inches between each shelf.
I plan on just using simple brackets to hold them up, and will be getting drywall anchors for support as I won't hit the studs.

My question is what kind of wood should I use for this?

 

Welcome to the forums.

I moved your thread to the woodworking section.

I can't help you on the choice of wood to use but why can't you catch the studs ?
CD's are extremely heavy

The studs are usually 16" on center and your shelves are 41" long. There shouldn't be a problem catching two.

 

Any particular reason for wanting floating shelves? IMO building a cabinet would be a lot stronger. I agree you need to secure the shelves to the studs, not the drywall!

 

I agree with Pete and Mark on hitting the studs. There would be no reason not to. As far as what material to use, I would use 1/2 or 3/4" plywood (AC or Sandeply) and band it on three sides with 1x2 pine or oak (choice). The plywood would be more stable and the banding will keep it from distorting or sinking in the middle. You could use 1x12 dimension lumber, but it could prove a little less stable over time in a floating situation. Do you have plans for end stops in your design? Cd's are slippery and definitely won't stand on end, so making a cabinet, or at least some sort of stop on the ends would keep things in relative order.

 

I'm a bit confused with the terminology. In my mind a "floating" shelf has no visible brackets. Typically they are built as shallow boxes supported by hidden cleats.

If you are looking to build simple wooden shelves supported by an L bracket it depends on your skills, available tools and budget. If you want utilitarian I would probably just buy 6"X oak boards at a big box. Break the edges, apply stain and a coat of poly and you are done. You can add gussets to the ends to keep your stuff from falling off.

I would not trust the shelves if they are not secured to studs.

 

Don't know why you want them to be 1" thick, but the length and thickness you want reminded me of premade oak or pine stair treads. They are 11 1/4" wide but you could cut them to the width you want.

 

This is all done, I made some shelves out of 1x4. I used two boards for the left and right, and then got it all put together in a corner. I got enough space to put more DVD's.
Also put in two brackets to keep it from being tipped over.

 

Here is a quick picture of it.

 

Good job and looks nice.................