I am designing a cabinet/shelf combination for our pantry.  I already built cabinets and shelving on the other side of this small room, but now am tackling the other side.  I live in VT and had some sugar maples go down on our property a few years ago and had them sliced up into 5/4 boards which have been air drying for 3 years now.  This lumber dresses out to a full 4/4 and this what I intend to use for the shelves.  I attached a pic of a Sketchup drawing of my plan for the sides I am building.  The upper shelving “cabinets” are where my issue is.  My wife did not want the shelves have sides that go down to the counter top, and was not enamored with either shelf standards or shelf brackets.   My solution is to make units similar to cabinets that will have a “nailing board” (a 1×2 strip of maple attached to the underside of each top shelf that will allow the unit to be screwed into studs).  I will also use a 1 x 2 maple ledger which will run the length of all shelves and allow the shelving to be attached to the ledger. 

Where my problem lies is in the corner unit with the L shaped shelving.  I am not quite sure how to build that due to the movement of the maple.  I don’t think a mitred shelf will work due to the movement and I think the movement over time will cause the shelves to misalign.  My initial thought is to use straight boards the length of the right side, then attach straight boards on the left to the right with a couple of  1″ short boards under the shelves that are fixed on the left with slots on the right to accomodate movement.  Since the wood should be about at the maximum water content now, I could just butt them up to the left, and as the humidity goes down, a small gap would open.  Not a perfect solution, but seems to be the best I can come up with.  Wondering if anyone here has some ideas.   The shelves will be 12″ deep.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Below is a pic of the other side of the room that is completed.  The room is too small to get a shot that shows it all.