For more than a decade our renovation philosophy has been simple: the middle makes no sense. In other words, don’t stress if your home is mid-renovation, only partly furnished, or in a transitional stage. Try things, live with them, and adjust as you go. Let rooms evolve based on how your family actually uses them. Expecting a perfect finished house overnight sets you up for disappointment—it usually takes years to get there. Be patient, experiment, and you’ll likely end up with spaces that are both beautiful and practical.
This awkward bedroom corner is a perfect example of that approach. It went through several odd stages while we figured out what would work best.
If you’re looking for floating shelf ideas, there are many DIY shelving projects that can inspire your own installation, from pantry shelves to heavy-duty storage. Below I’ll walk through how this corner has changed and why the current solution feels right for us.
Let’s rewind. Three years ago, right after we moved in, the corner was basically a “make it work” arrangement. At the time we were imagining a closet here, and we even had a rendered plan, but eventually we chose to put a larger closet system elsewhere. That delay and indecision meant we lived with an awkward setup for a long time, which ultimately helped us decide what we really needed from the space.
To orient you, the left side of that photo is the same wall as the fireplace. It was an odd corner to style for a couple of reasons: the walls meet at an acute angle rather than a right angle, and the corner is visible from our kitchen and sitting area. We didn’t want guests looking straight into an obvious bedroom scene, so we tried to make the view look less like a bedroom.
For a while we even considered that this corner might become a second bathroom someday. That hypothetical future held us back from making permanent changes—why invest now if a wall might go up later? When we installed built-ins around the fireplace, we stopped short of going wall-to-wall on the right side because we thought the bathroom wall might live there in the future.
Eventually we realized that the bathroom plan was becoming less likely and decided to focus on what would actually serve us now. We wanted a solution that would look non-bedroom-like from the kitchen and add practical storage—both closed and open—without feeling permanent or destructive to future plans.
The final solution uses three straightforward elements:
- Extend the Ikea Besta cabinets so they run wall-to-wall.
- Give them a built-in look with trim and a countertop for a custom finish.
- Add three long floating shelves above for vertical display and storage.
We debated a few other options, like a taller hutch with glass doors, but the clean, modern look of this setup felt right. It also feels reversible—nothing is so permanent that we couldn’t change it later if needed.
We were fortunate that standard Besta sizes fit this odd wall surprisingly well. Because of that, we added three more cabinets and gained about 70 inches of extra storage. To get the built-in look we used the same approach as before: add baseboard, fill gaps, and top with butcher block. Extending the countertop into the pinched corner visually resolves that awkward angle and makes the whole area read as intentional.
One of the end cabinets still opens wide enough for everyday use, and one cabinet now holds everything that used to live in the odd blue dresser. In short, we gained two whole cabinets of hidden storage plus three shelves for vertical display.
To decide how many shelves to hang, we tested visually by holding shelves up, using painter’s tape on the wall, and marking up photos. Three 72-inch shelves filled the space proportionally and left enough room for books, plants, art, and treasured objects. We like mixing books with art and plants to create a lived-in, layered look.
For anyone wondering about anchors: for load-bearing shelves, try to screw into studs whenever possible. When you can’t hit a stud, heavy-duty anchors designed for the wall material are reliable and quick to install. We used strong anchors for these shelves and they’ve been rock solid.
Our goals were straightforward: more concealed storage, an attractive display area, and a view from the doorway that doesn’t immediately read as a bedroom. The finished corner checks all those boxes. Styling shelves is always a joy here—books, plants, and a few special objects make the arrangement feel personal and welcoming.
If you’re curious how the new corner fits in with the rest of the room, we made a short video tour showing the entire bedroom and how the view looks from the kitchen doorway. The clip explains how adding height and vertical elements helps balance the space and emphasizes the storage gains.
To bring this full circle, here’s a before view right after we moved in:
And now the same view after the update. The mini-split and other small changes are part of other projects we’ve done, but visually the corner now feels intentional, tidy, and useful.
It’s satisfying to resolve a spot that sat in limbo for years. We gained two full cabinets of hidden storage and three shelves for display. Best of all, the changes are reversible—nothing here is so permanent that we couldn’t remove or reconfigure it in the future.
UPDATE: SIX MONTHS LATER!
Six months on, this corner has become one of my favorite spots. I leaned into a pastel, slightly iridescent palette for the shelves and started adding more handmade pieces—pottery, small artworks, and a child’s painting—alongside a few favorite crystals. The result feels playful, personal, and cohesive with the rest of the room.
A wider shot shows how the shelves work with the fireplace and mirror update. The shelves add color and texture without competing with the quieter, sculptural elements over the fireplace. From the sitting area, the doorway now reads like a cozy shared space—almost like a small library or family nook—instead of an exposed bedroom.
Looking back from the original install to today, it’s fun to see how a simple combination of extra cabinets, a continuous counter, and a few long floating shelves transformed a weird, pinched corner into a functional, attractive moment in the room.
More Floating Shelving Projects
If you want more floating shelf inspiration, here are a few other projects worth exploring: DIY non-chunky floating shelves in a bonus room, floating wood shelves over a tile backsplash, faux floating shelves for an office nook, floating storage shelves in a laundry closet, and simple floating closet shelves for a child’s room.
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