To be honest, the current bookshelves that we have now are actually the second go-around. The first time I made bookshelves for Bear’s room, they looked lovely, but had some serious ‘structural’ issues lol. The front ledge wasn’t high enough to properly secure the books in, so they would constantly topple over unless placed juuust so. It was incredibly annoying. The second issue was a major, major rookie mistake on my end. I drilled straight through the bottom ledge, into drywall anchors, however, the screws weren’t long enough to properly secure the shelf to the wall PLUS, I didn’t screw into any studs! But lesson learned! I won’t make that mistake again lol!
Okay, so the real way to make bookshelves that are secure and beautiful is actually really easy- easier than my first attempt tbh.
I picked up some lumber from Home Depot:
- 2 – 1×8’s (cut into six 19″ pieces. I was able to get three wood pieces from each 1×8)
- 1 – 2×6 (cut into three 19″ pieces)
Everything else I had on hand, but to make these you will need:
- 9 screws, long enough to connect the bottom and back pieces *see pic*
- 6 long screws (will be securing the whole bookshelf to the wall, so make sure yours are long enough for that)
- 1 1/2″ finishing nails
- hammer
- white paint
- sanding paper
- drill and appropriate drill bits
I gave the wood a nice sanding to smooth any rough edges, then used some paint that I had lying around (Behr Marquee in White Dove) and gave each board two coats of paint, drying and lightly sanding in between coats.
Then I picked out the nice sides on the 2×6 pieces (the nice sides will be facing out as the front of the bookshelf). I arranged where all the boards went before screwing anything together.
You can see where the 1×8’s and the 2×6’s will go:
Two 1×8 pieces will be used as the bottom of the shelf and the back part that secures it to the wall.
Then I marked on the 1×8’s where to drill so I could connect them to each other, pre-drilled the holes and used 2 screws per bookshelf to secure the two 1×8’s together *see pic below*
Once all three shelf bottom & back pieces are put together, screw them into the wall (pre-drill the holes first to prevent splitting and make sure to drill into at least 1 stud!)
Don’t worry about any marks or nicks from the drill, they can either be touched up or left, since the front piece & books will cover everything.
After all three shelves are secured to the wall, take the front 2×6 pieces and use finishing nails to attach it to the fronts of the shelves. I used some of the paint to cover the nails when this was all done.
I made these three bookshelves all under an hours and for $5! That’s crazy and they turned out exactly as I was hoping. I wanted to utilize the space behind Bear’s door, and built these to fit perfectly there. Now we have awesome book storage, that is hidden when the door is open and I love that I made these for my little boy’s room.
When you read to your littles, what are their favourite books? Bear loves the ‘Corduroy’ series or anything with trucks in it lol.
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