the shelf will go on the wall where that mirror is. we will be tiling that back wall. or maybe wallpaper instead of tile? haven't decided yet.

It looks like you have room for two shelves, but the answer depends on what you want to put on the shelves. I like the idea of wallpaper for backing because it's easier to remove later when you want to change the look, but tile looks really nice. Here's what some others have done:

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There's usually 2 or 3 shelves because of the limited weight capacity for floating shelves. You cannot fill them close to full wthout them collapsing.

One will look great.

does anyone have photos of just 1 floating shelf on a bar area? I can't find any!

I don't plan on filling up the shelves since we have plenty of space in the bar cabinets. there's another set of cabinets across these ones.