Glass and Mirrors - How to Make Glass Doors, Floating Glass Shelves

I'm planning to finish a large room in my basement as a study area for my children. To make it feel brighter and to minimize visual distractions, I'm hoping to make extensive use of glass for shelves, doors and even a whiteboard.

There is a lot of information available on the Web about making glass dry-erase boards, but I'm having a hard time finding anything on DIY floating glass shelves or doors. I can't begin to afford the commercially available products (e.g, http://floatingglassshelves.com or http://www.specialtydoors.com/specialty-glass-doors.html).

Does anyone have any sources of how-to information or any advice/experience to share about fabricating your own floating glass shelves or glass interior and closet doors (sliding or French-door style)?

An alternative to floating shelves would be supporting them with narrow metal (or other complementary material) posts, I guess.

Thanks for any advice or leads.

Have you looked for solutions in a big-box building store? Just a guess. Regardless, this idea won't be cheap to build because tempered glass is not cheap. You will definitely want to use tempered glass because its stronger and also safer in case it gets broken. Tempered glass is generally more expensive because its cut then refired. Any commercial product you buy should be made with tempered glass and I'd guess your glass will be more expensive because it will likely be a custom order from a glass company.

What about something like this? http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30047893
or maybe look into some company that sells retail store fixtures. You might be able to get reasonably priced glass shelves from there as well. If you still decide to do it yourself, make sure to use some sort of adhesive caulk.

What you are looking at looks very expensive. You could use glass clamps that come in many configurations including hinges. The glass could be tempered but must be for doors. Using annealed 3/8" to 1/2" glass for shelves should be OK. Here are a couple of links: http://www.homedecorhardware.com/sugatsune-hardware-glass-hardware-glass-clamps-and-supports.html

http://www.crlaurence.com/apps/sitesearch/search.aspx?query=glass+clamps

What you are looking at looks very expensive. You could use glass clamps that come in many configurations including hinges. The glass could be tempered but must be for doors. Using annealed 3/8" to 1/2" glass for shelves should be OK. Here are a couple of links: http://www.homedecorhardware.com/sugatsune-hardware-glass-hardware-glass-clamps-and-supports.html

http://www.crlaurence.com/apps/sitesearch/search.aspx?query=glass+clamps


Thanks for the links, johnam and dneves. The Ikea shelf would be just right except I need a deeper shelf (more like 10" or 12" rather than 4"). The links to hardware were intriguing, but the retail store's prices were incredibly high (it's easy to find European online stores with prices a small fraction of those), and the other one only sells to the trade.

Getting the tempered glass cheaply is not a problem. I was able to get 10"x20" sheets on ebay for about $6.50 apiece, and later I even found a retail site that sells 12"x24" sheets for under $5/apiece. It's the hardware that seems almost impossible to find in the USA -- or at least at reasonable cost.

Looks like a market niche that has yet to be exploited by some enterprising company ...

It's the hardware that seems almost impossible to find in the USA -- or at least at reasonable cost.

I purchased a couple of corner glass shelving units at Lowes (Real Organized Glass Corner Shelf Kit) and liked the hardware enough that I called customer service and ordered additional mounting hardware for my other glass shelving. As long as the style of the hardware and the satin nickel finish suits your needs, they're a great deal at around $3 apiece.

In case you're interested, the customer service number is 1-800-444-6742 and you'll ask for the mounting hardware for Item #089679.