Ever since the boy's old bookcase went kaputs we desperately needed a way to store books in their room. They have a ton of books since they love to read and don't mind a new story every day. Here are the book shelves we built for them:
We had the idea of something with a built-in look. On Saturday I drove over to a local woodworking store that offers unfinished wood furniture. Sadly they were closed by the time I got there, but I thought I would check if there was a bookcase I could stain or paint and we could mount to the corner next to the window. We were kind of glad we didn't spend the money on a bookcase because it turned out we had a whole bunch of shelf brackets in our storage shed that Joe had hoped to use for building shelves in there. He ended up using some other storage units in there so we had left over brackets.
After measuring the space several times we headed to Lowes to see what kind of wood would work for shelves. We got 2 long pieces of wood. Joe cut them to fit in the space. Here's Joe now praying this doesn't take too long.
He then sanded and primed them.
Luckily we already had this primer on hand: Zinsser Primecoat Primer and Sealer.
We then painted them the same color as the walls to look more built in and intentional. The paint we used is called Polar Star by Valspar in a Satin finish. Here they are drying in the backyard.
After two coats of paint, it was time for sealer. We love Minwax Water-based Polycrylic Protective Finish. This time we used a satin finish to match the walls.
I had to bring them inside to apply three coats of this because I was also watching the baby and she really wanted to get all up in the paint outside.
After the paint dried, Joe drilled two small holes on one side of the board so that I could attach a ribbon through each of them so the books don't fall off the open end of the shelf. You could use anything long here, like twine, metal wire, a cord, etc. We used ribbon for a prettier effect and we can change it out easily when we get bored of the color.
Next Joe installed the brackets to the shelves and then to the wall 12" apart, 5 high up the wall.
We love the look of them and the fact that it utilizes unused space in the room. With two boys sharing a 10' x 11' space, we need all the space we can get.
Here's a look with books in them.
This whole project took about a half a day. It's super easy and much cheaper than buying a bookcase. The whole project cost $20. Woot Woot.
Have you made any built-in bookcases lately or installed shelves? Was it super easy? We love seeing your projects so send pics our way!
xo
Cathleen