Floating Isn't Floating Anymore

We have floating shelves in our kids' rooms to display their collectibles. I don't know what it is about the floating shelf, but it makes me a little nervous. It's just hanging there. Floating.

We had floating shelves in our bathroom, but they weren't floating quite right. There was a gap at the top and they leaned forward. Bothered me every time I walked in the bathroom. I dealt with it for about one week.

Then I bought black iron brackets at Ikea and placed them as supports under the shelves. Actually Hubby and I did, and we didn't even attach them to the shelves. We just left the shelves attached to the walls as they were and attached the brackets to the wall for support of the shelves. Worked like a charm.

So when Sparky told me that 'Big Derek' almost hit her on the head the other night, and when she started placing things back up and they were sliding off, I knew we had a problem.

These are her hanging shelves right after we finished painting her room a couple of weeks ago.

You can tell the left one is slightly droopy. I had already taken the wall bracket down, redrilled holes, and put in new anchors. I think the bracket had bent a little and that was the problem. It started pulling away from the wall again. (I usually don't take the brackets down when I paint the walls. I just paint around them with the knowledge that if and when I take them down, I'll have to do some work on that area. I'd have holes to plug up anyway.)

I had four more of the black brackets from Ikea that I planned on using for another shelf in our mudroom area that I've never put up. Sparky and I decided that was the best option for her shelves, because she didn't want to lose those green shelves.

It works and it matches the black bed. If and when we ever take those down, there are a lot of holes in that wall, and they all have brackets in them!