Alcove shelves

[merculesnotts]

Looking to put some shelves up in the alcoves, although the chimney breast is only around 15cm projection from the wall.
Hoping to use 18mm birch ply to make them a bit more interesting; thoughts on use the plywood for the battens too?

 

[TheUnicorn]

I can't see any reason structurally that ply wouldn't work for the battening. I'm not sure how relevant the 15cm chimney breast is, were you thinking of having shelves significantly deeper than that?

 

[merculesnotts]

Sorry yeah that was part of the question; Would you make the shelves come further out than that or keep them flush?

 

[TheUnicorn]

keeping them flush would be better. That said a small overhang should not be a problem, extending the depth to say 200mm, would probably be fine, 300mm would be less so, you'd need to do something different in terms of battening / support.