Easy DIY Book Storage
CREATE THIS EASY DIY BOOK STORAGE UNIT OUT OF SCRAP WOOD. IT IS THE PERFECT PROJECT FOR BEGINNERS WOODWORKERS
Welcome back y’all to this months At Home DIY Challenge project! I have teamed up with some amazingly talented bloggers to bring y’all some storage solutions made out of wood.
If you follow us on Instagram you saw our #realroomtour of Eli’s nursery. We renovated his sweet little nursery last year & I absolutely love it except for one thing… There is not enough book storage! We love to read over here & the little wall shelves I installed are just not cutting it so I decided to tackle this problem with this month’s challenge!
I built this book storage unit entirely out of scrap wood using plans I created! Usually, I follow woodworking plans that already exist or go off a picture I find, but this time I just went for it. Working off my own plans was intimidating for me at first because I had no idea if it would turn out good but y’all I am glad I womaned up & did it because it’s perfect!
The best part is if I can do it so can you! This little book storage unit is the perfect beginner woodworking project & ill show you exactly how I did step by step so you can make it too!
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Supplies:
- 1×3 Scrap Wood Pieces
- 1-1/4″ Pocket Screws or 1″ Regular Screws
- Kreg Jig (if you want to use pocket holes)
- Drill or Hammer
- Miter Saw or Hand Saw
- Paint/Stain
Process:
- Start by cutting your wood pieces to size. I wanted my unit to be about 23in wide so I cut all my wood to that length. 8 pieces total cut at 23in. Now cut two more scrap wood pieces at 12 1/2in.
2. Next, use your Kreg Jig to make pocket holes on each side of 6 of the 23in boards. I only did one pocket hole per side but you can definitely do two for extra support. If you are not doing pocket holes skip this step
3. Now we will work on the leg pieces. Using your miter saw or hand saw cut one side of each of the leg pieces at 45 degrees. If you are using a hand saw here is a miter box to help you cut your angle.
4. After you have your two long legs cut we will work on the short legs. These will be your two 12 1/2″ pieces. (If you are not using pocket holes skip cutting these boards into two smaller pieces & just cut the 45-degree angle) Cut one half of the board at 6″ that will make your other side 6 1/2″. Take your 6 1/2″ piece & cut one side 45 degrees. The photo above should help to make more sense of these cuts!
5. After you have your small legs cut its time to add pocket holes to the middle section. This is where we will attach the small legs to the big legs.
Questions about how Kreg Jig joinery works? Heres a great article!
6. Attach your smaller legs to your larger legs using 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws. To know where to attach the legs you can use a square. If you don’t have square you could stand the large leg up & small bottom leg & just mark the spot where both legs are flat & even. (Obviously, a square is easier but sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do?.)
7. Copy those steps to make your other set of legs. If you didn’t use pocket holes you will need to attach your legs from the outside using your 1″ screws.
8. Finally, its time to attach your slats to the legs. Attach them using your pocket screws starting at the top of the long leg. I attached all 6 slats to the first leg before moving onto the second. There is 3 3/4″ in-between the back of the book storage slats & 3/4 in-between the bottom slats.
9. Once you have all the slats attached to the first leg, attach the second leg the same way. Now that our book storage unit is built we can move onto the finishing touches!
Finishing:
10. Next up is sanding! I use my Ryobi sander for all my sanding projects because it goes a lot quicker but you can definitely use a sanding block instead.
11. Finally, you can paint or stain your book storage unit any color you want. I ended up painting mine white to match the bookshelves that are already in Eli’s nursery!
This easy DIY book storage project took me about 2 hours total & was super easy, plus I was able to hone in on my pocket hole skills. We desperately needed some extra book storage so this challenge came at the perfect time. Let me know if you have any questions & don’t forget to check out all the other amazing At Home Project Challenges below!
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This is a fantastic way to organize books. Thanks for sharing your tutorial!
Thanks Megan, it was such a fun project!
Such a beautiful book shelf!! My daughter has been begging us to make her a book shelf to store all her books, this would be perfect! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Christine! He loves picking a book each night & it really gave us so much more storage!