DIY Bookshelves

You can certainly purchase bookshelves, but I love the unique look of these custom built shelves my husband made for our boy's bedroom. I wanted shelves that weren't too deep so that the cover would face out rather than the spine. At four, he is much more likely to grab a book if he can see the cover. We had a full wall with nothing on, so not only is this functional, but also adds to his woodsy themed room, adding color and dimension.

Since putting these in his room, we've seen a couple really positive changes.

*They help with clutter, as prior to these, his books were piled on his table and typically ended up on the floor.

*I like that I can select certain books to display here depending on the season, holiday, or interest.

*They were placed low enough that he can reach the bottom shelf if he wants to look through them during quiet time. Here's how he made them:

Step 1: Select your wood. We used pine wood. These are live edge trimmings off a slab, so that's why you see the beautiful curves and knots.

Step 2: Sand with 320 grit.

Step 3: Stain with a Varathane Golden Oak.

Step 4: The "lip" used to keep the books from slipping off the shelf were installed into a routed rack for a cleaner look.

NOTE: These pieces were leftover from our son's bed project. In retrospect, we would have used slightly larger pieces so the shelf was deeper and we could have added more books, but for now this works!