Free Plan: Quarter-Circle Corner Shelf
Four curved shelves, every screw hidden. Fits any corner.
Free download. No signup required.
- PDF plan
- Material & cut list
- Step-by-step instructions
✓ Your corner shelf plan is downloading.
Download didn't start? Get the plan here.Four curves are drawn up. Making them match is technique, not luck.
- A printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing: how wood moves, how a glue-up stays flat, how a finish holds up. The part a plan leaves out.
- What to read first: the chapters on layout and cutting. One template, four shelves, a cut a hair outside the line and sanded back to it. Getting that right once is the habit every curve after this one runs on.
- The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked. Untick it if you only want the book.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Every room has that one awkward corner. Too small for furniture, too open to leave empty. Most people just let it sit.
This shelf fills it. Four quarter-circle shelves screwed onto two vertical strips. Every screw goes on the wall-side face, so from the front you see clean curves and nothing else. The original design is from 1909 and used oak for under a dollar in materials. Today you're still under $10, and it looks like it came from a furniture store.
The curve is what sells it. It reads like real joinery work, but it's a shape you trace and cut, not a joint you fight. No mortises, no dowels, no clamping. A beginner can finish the whole thing, and the template is why.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Main materials
- 3/4" oak or poplar (two vertical strips approx. 3/4 x 2 inches, four quarter-circle shelf boards), wood screws, glue, stain or oil finish
- Build time
- One shop day, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Jigsaw or coping saw, drill with countersink bit, screwdriver, orbital sander, clamps, level, a piece of cardboard or scrap for the curve template
- Note
- All screws sit on the back (wall-side) face, so nothing shows from the front. Countersink them so the shelf mounts flat.
Before you cut: make the template first
The whole look depends on the four curves matching. So don't mark each shelf by hand. Make one quarter-circle template out of cardboard or scrap, then trace all four shelves from that one template. Cut a hair outside the line with the jigsaw and sand down to the line. Stack the four shelves together after sanding and check that the curves line up. If one is off, your eye goes straight to it once the shelf is on the wall. For mounting: countersink every screw on the back face so the heads sit below the surface and the vertical strips pull tight to the wall. Mark your screw spots before you drill. From the front, the reader should see four clean curves and not a single fastener.
You came here for a corner shelf. That's one clean, functional build, and the template trick makes the four curves manageable by hand.
But the template only works if the cutting and the sanding do. Cut a hair outside the line, sand down to it without rounding the edge, keep the four stacked and true. That is technique, and it is the same technique behind every curve and every joint you cut after this one.
What the book actually covers
The part the plan leaves out
A plan tells you what to cut. It does not tell you why the glue-up cupped overnight, why the stain went blotchy on the end grain, or why the drawer that fit in July sticks in January. That is technique, and it is the same on every project. That is what four matching curves ask of you, and every project after this one asks for more of it.
The book covers layout, cutting, joinery and finishing in plain language, for a home shop with a few tools or a full one. It is a printed book, not a course, and it stays on the bench.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the next project, already drawn
Ted's Woodworking is a library of 16,000 plans, each with a cut list, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds, beginner to advanced. Sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
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