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| She's such a slow coach |
So, where are we with things? Right. We built some shelving units most of which have now been painted and are starting to look fantastic.
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| Adding shelves |
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| Almost finished |
Now the big question is – do you place the units up against a painted wall or put a backing board on them?
As always, the answer to this question is ‘it depends’. Whether you add a backing board or not depends on a number of factors including budget, ascetics and overall construction. If you are trying to keep costs down and you don’t mind seeing the wall behind the shelf unit then don’t bother with backing.
But if you are concerned with the overall stability of your unit and wish to prevent what is called ‘racking’ then adding a backing board may be the way forward as this will help to brace things together, provide greater rigidity and improve the longevity of the unit.
My first thought for a backing board was a thin sheet of MDF but in the end I decided against this because MDF doesn’t really stain well. I wanted a backing board with the grain and look of wood that didn’t flex quite as much as MDF so I’ve gone with something which is called ‘hardwood through plywood’.
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| Hardwood through plywood |
This product is similar in thickness to MDF but being plywood it’s stiffer, looks woodier and stains up a treat. Working at a timber merchant has its advantages as I was able to get all my plywood sheets cut exactly to the size of each shelf unit making life a lot easier.
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| Nice woodgrain |
Two coats of natural oak stain followed by two coats of clear satin varnish then hey presto, a backing board that matches the stained shelves. Nail into place using small panel pins.
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| After two coats of stain and varnish |
Three units completed, two more to finish off – time to crack on!
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| Three done |
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| And two more to go |
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