Drywall can be called universalbuilding material. With its help, you can create not only smooth walls, multi-level ceilings, arches, partitions, but also all kinds of shelves that can become a decoration of a modern interior. How to make a shelf from plasterboard or a rack so that you can put books, vases with flowers, photo frames and even TVs and music centers on them, you can find out by reading the tips for their creation. It should be added that you can also make plasterboard furniture in the bathroom. And for use in rooms with high humidity, moisture-resistant gypsum boards are produced.
Figure 1. General diagram of a plasterboard shelf.Drywall is an extremely easy-to-process material. This is its main advantage. At the same time, its fragility does not allow creating durable structures from drywall without preliminary construction of a frame. The skeleton of a drywall shelf is assembled from the same elements as when covering walls or ceilings. The frame can be made of wooden blocks and metal profiles. Drywall furniture must be attached to solid foundations. If the frame of the rack is not arranged near the wall, then it should be built according to the same principle as a drywall partition in a room. The shelf frame is hung on a brick, concrete or wooden wall, and its attachment to a drywall surface is unacceptable. If you are finishing a room with drywall and already know how to place racks and shelves, then make their frames during the construction of the lathing for the drywall.
What you need to prepare to create a shelf or shelf
Figure 2.The frame for plasterboard shelves is assembled from metal profiles. Before making plasterboard shelves, you need to decide on their size and appearance. Although these products will not look massive after installation, their vertical and horizontal partitions will be quite thick. When making markings, take this into account so that after assembly they will fit the items you plan to put there. Try to make a drawing of a shelf or rack indicating the dimensions of the parts to make your further work easier (Fig. 1). To make plasterboard shelves yourself, you need to stock up on the following tools and materials:
- GCR;
- guide (UD) profiles;
- rack-mount (CD) profiles;
- scissors for metal;
- a square;
- with a construction knife;
- self-tapping screws;
- dowel-nails;
- level;
- a marking tool;
- perforator or impact drill;
- screwdriver;
- putty;
- spatulas;
- sandpaper;
- a serpent;
- a primer;
- paint;
- roller or brush.
Using the drawing as a guide, you can make more precise measurements.determine how much material you will need to build a plasterboard shelf. After purchasing it, you can start working. Return to Contents</a>
Construction of a frame
Figure 3.Scheme of fastening the frame to the wall and ceiling. The initial stage is creating the frame (Fig. 2). If the shelf is to be installed on the wall (without support on the floor or hanging from the ceiling), it is necessary to build a reinforced frame with a more frequent arrangement of profiles. It is not recommended to make a large depth and long crossbars for it. Suspended structures in which the upper guide is screwed to the ceiling, and the side profiles are attached to the walls (Fig. 3), or shelves resting on the floor are more durable. The frame should also be reinforced when a heavy object such as a TV is supposed to be installed on the shelf. If you are ready to start working, prepare a tape measure, level and pencil and apply markings to the wall. In addition, markings are made on all surfaces to which the shelf will be adjacent. Use metal scissors to cut the guide profiles into pieces of the required length. Lay out the perimeters of all the edges of the shelf from them. UD are laid on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. They are fixed to the surfaces with dowel nails, but first holes are drilled in the profiles, and through them marks are made for the attachment points. At these points, holes are drilled for 6x40 mm dowel nails.
Figure 4. Backlight installation diagram.If the walls are uneven, then for mounting the UD you need to use U-shaped sag. After fixing the wall strips, the remaining guides are installed. They are pulled together with screws and press washers. The remaining jumpers of the plasterboard shelf are made of CD profiles. They are fastened to the guides using special connecting devices - crabs. Crabs do not need to be installed on the front side, as they will interfere with the cladding of the frame with plasterboard. Perhaps you decide to make plasterboard shelves with lighting, then lay the wiring inside the frame to the installation points of the lamps. What the finished frame looks like, in which the wires are laid, is shown in Fig. 4. To make it easier to install the lamps, bring the wiring as close as possible to the places of their installation. After this, it is better to fix the cables on the profiles. Having done this, you will quickly find the connection contacts. Return to the table of contents</a>
Facing the frame with sheets GKL
Now you can start cutting the facingmaterial for a plasterboard shelf. Plasterboard is easy to cut with a construction knife, but special attention when preparing the rack parts should be paid to the accuracy of the marking, so do not forget to use a square and a ruler to measure the diagonals of rectangular blanks. If the marking is done accurately, the lines connecting the opposite corners of the parts will be the same.
Scheme of covering the frame with plasterboard:A - vertical parts, B - horizontal parts. The plasterboard sheets are screwed to the frame with screws. For the lamps, holes are drilled in advance (before installation on the frame). It is best to use a drill with a crown of the required diameter for this operation. Before drilling, it will be enough to determine the center of the hole. If you do not have a tool, you can use other devices. These include:
- construction knife;
- hacksaw for GCR;
- electric jigsaw.
The contours of the hole are applied using a ready-made template.For marking, you can use a compass and a ruler. This method will come in handy if the accuracy of the installation location of the lamps is important to you. After screwing the plasterboard, all seams, joints and screwing points are treated with a primer. Then the seams and joints are pasted over with serpyanka, and then they are sealed with putty. After it dries, the plasterboard is covered with a layer of primer. As soon as it dries, all surfaces of the shelf are puttied. The next day, they are sanded with sandpaper. After removing the dust, you can begin painting or pasting the rack. Return to the table of contents</a>
Construction of plasterboard cabinet
Example of a drawing of a plasterboard cabinet.If your structure takes up all the space from the floor to the ceiling, you can make a full-fledged wardrobe with sliding or swinging doors out of it. Of course, you can't make them out of plasterboard. Instead of plasterboard, you can use laminated chipboard, plywood, OSB or MDF. The frame for attaching the doors should be made of bars. Its dimensions depend on the dimensions of the wardrobe. You can make crossbars in the frame if the wardrobe will have 2 or more tiers with doors or additional racks for attaching doors. The width of the front part of the bars should correspond to the width of the front part of the profile. The wooden frame is treated with an antiseptic and attached to them during the installation of the frame. The side parts of the plasterboard are cut taking into account the thickness of the wood. Having bought material for the doors in the store, you can cut their parts to the required dimensions. For swinging doors, you need to buy special canopies for furniture. The sliding elements will move along the guides. The necessary sliding mechanisms and guides are also sold in furniture stores. The cut edges of laminated chipboard or MDF are covered with melamine tape. The edges of plywood or OSB are sanded, and the materials themselves can be varnished, painted or covered with MDF lining. All that remains is to install the handles on the cabinet doors. Return to contents</a>
How to bend a gypsum board
Sometimes the creators of plasterboard shelving,cabinets and shelves want to move away from the straight lines of forms and decorate the products with curved elements. The front part of such a cabinet is cut very easily. It is enough to apply markings to the gypsum board or attach a template to it, and then cut out the part of the desired shape. But in order to bend the sheet, it must first be wetted. Before soaking the gypsum board, cut out a template with an arched edge from plywood. The wet plate will bend along it. Cut out a blank slightly longer than necessary from the gypsum board. Then the excess gypsum board can be trimmed. Pierce the cardboard on one side of the blank with a needle roller, an awl or a fork by a third of its thickness. Moisten the gypsum board with a wet rag for half an hour. After this, the sheet is placed in the cutout of the template and the gypsum board is given the shape of an arc. It is preserved even after the gypsum board dries. The curved gypsum board is laid on a metal profile. Frequent cuts are made on its sides so that the profile can also be bent into an arc. The front sheets are screwed to it with self-tapping screws. If the rack is located near the wall, then one of the profiles is attached to it. After that, the curved part is screwed to it. Further processing of the plasterboard is carried out using putty, serpyanka, sandpaper and various types of coatings.
