Do you have so many books that you no longer know where to put them all? Are you looking for a unique furniture addition to your room? If you said yes to either of these and you are confident working with your hands, you might want to consider making your own shelf. Not only will you cut costs by building it yourself, you may also find DIY work stress relieving. But how do you pull this off? Here are some ideas.
Floating bookshelf
Make your books look like they’re floating against the wall with this idea. You will need a hardbound book to serve as the base, two big metal brackets, and the appropriate screws for the brackets. Your brackets should be big, but smaller than your book; if your book is 6×9 inches, your brackets should be 4×4 inches; for larger books, you should get brackets that are 6×6 inches,
Screw the brackets 4.5 inches apart into your wall. Note that if your wall is made of drywall, you might have to use drywall anchors along with the screws. To make the brackets “invisible”, take the dust jacket and cut two 2-inch slits in the fold where the back cover meets the book’s back flap. Be sure to measure the slits properly such that they would slide into the two wall brackets. When placing your base book, all you have to do is put it on top of the brackets with the dust cover slid into them. Then, just put books on top of the hardbound base and, voila, you have an invisible bookshelf. Here are further details on how to build this shelf.
Ladder shelf
Got an old ladder lying around? You can easily turn it into a shelf by placing wooden planks over the ladder rungs and securing them onto the ladder with screws. You can also paint and personalize it further if you want.
Repurposed drawers and wine crates
If you have an old wooden drawer that is not being used, you can repurpose it into a bookshelf too. You just have to paint over or stick a poster onto its interiors and install it onto the wall with brackets or sawtooth hangers. You may add compartments too if you want. Or, if you want to do something easier, you can simply stack them on top of each other. The same methods can be used to turn wine crates — or basically any wooden box — into bookshelves as well.
Antique wooden bookshelves
These are easy to make. All you would need are antique wooden benches and then you stack them on top of each other to form the bookshelf. You can paint over them or, if you want to fortify them, you can install brackets to make sure they do not dip at the center.
These are just some designs to give you ideas for unique do-it-yourself bookshelves. Following these designs is good, but coming up with your own ideas is even better. Whatever you choose to do, your shelf should reflect your taste and go well with the space you are placing it in.