Building a Bookshelf

by Gillian Markson | More from this Blogger

One thing is for certain when it comes to my hobbies: I love to read! I have so many books that they are literally like wallpaper in my house. With each book I purchase, I max out the maximum load of my bookshelves, which means that for a long time, books were all over the floor and countertops of just about every room in my house. It's not that I didn't want to be more tidy, but I felt like bookshelves were too expensive for me to keep purchasing. Plus, they never seem to come in exactly the size that I need.

My brother was visiting me over the weekend a few months ago and we both had a good laugh at my mess. I can't help it! I just love books and love to keep them with my notes and everything. My brother suggested that we build some bookshelves - so that's exactly what we did.

I had never really done anything remotely creative dealing with construction. I didn't even know where to begin when we started building the shelves, but it was surprising easy!

First, we bought a whole bunch of wood from the hardware store. It all had the same width, but carrying lengths. Next, we borrowed a table saw from my parents.

We cut two lengths of wood to be equal in size (about seven feet tall.) These were to be the sides of my bookshelf. Next, we built two smaller pieces of wood for the base and top of the shelf. We nailed the pieces together. My brother also knew about these 90-degree hooks that would help the two pieces stay together. We nailed the hooks into the corners of the shelf.

Once we had the box-like frame, my brother purchased some cardboard type material for the back. The cardboard was supposed to make a nice back so that no books fell off. He also said that it would help to support the frame. We nailed the cardboard stuff to all four sides of the bookshelf on the back.

Next, we installed some steal hanger systems. This is the same type of hanger system that my professional bookshelves have - it's an adjustable hook method that allows you to change the height of the shelves. All we had to do was screw two hangers on both sides of the bookshelf inside frame. The tricky part was getting the height of the two hangers at the same level so that the bookshelves wouldn't be crooked.

Once the hanging system was in place, we cut pieces of board that would be the shelves. You should wait to cut the board until after the hanging system is in place because the system will protrude slightly from the walls of the shelf, taking up some space that you will need to account for in the cutting.

Once everything was cut and in place, all I had to do was paint the shelf. Painting was actually the hardest part because I didn't want to get any streaks on my professional looking shelves.

Building my own shelves was easy. If I didn't have a table saw, I think it would be a lot harder - so make sure that you have all the tools that you need before you get started. I think it's also much easier to build your own shelves than it is to keep buying more and more shelves. It feels good to have them in my house - knowing I made them!

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