Wednesday, August 1, 2012

How to make a most fabulous bookshelf without your boyfriend's help

A couple years ago I saw this bookshelf in my local coffeeshop, Sugarlump Cafe.


Inspired, I decided I wanted to make a bookshelf like that of my own, to house my record player and various oddball decorations.

For a couple years I thought about it and figured I'd get around to it.. get my boyfriend to cut the shelves, find brackets, etc. Well one day at a local hardware store I came across the standards, or the long pieces that mount to the wall, on complete give-away sale. Bought them and then eventually bought some brackets, also in a brass finish, to match.

Next up was the shelving. I decided to go for inexpensive, in case the whole mess turned into exactly that. So I bought a 4x4' oak-veneered 3/4" plywood board and had it cut to spec at Lowes. Making a base shelf 16.5" deep, to fit the largest bottom brackets and then a bunch of 10.5" shelves of varying widths to stagger it like above.

I bought some Miniwax light walnut stain for the shelves and had a few dremel tweaks to do to the brackets, but ended up with the following story:


I first taped the marks on the wall to get a feel for it.


Then used 3" screws to secure to the lathe in the wall. I learned here that whoever built this wall made the door a full 1" wider from the corner at the top of the door to the bottom.


Had to dremel away a bit of the metal on the brackets to fit in the standards. Different brands..


As the stain dried I set them in to take a look.


Then threw some crap on the shelves to make it real.