Open Concept Book Shelves

So, the immediate needs for furniture in our house have been met.  Really, the kitchen table was the thing that needed to get done, so we could have eight people for Christmas dinner- and we all fit pretty comfortably.  I started looking for a new project and found an open concept book shelf in a taunton book on shelves and cabinets that I purchased last year.  This is a great idea because it will take up a wall in our study and replace a big hulking book shelf that we purchased off of amazon.com 4 years ago, AND a set of 6 plywood boxes that I made before heading off to grad school.  Don't discount the boxes, those things were a great idea (thanks, dad!) and they worked for six years to store sweaters or books and I'd set them up in all sorts of interesting geometric patterns.  However, since Eric and I are trying to be adults... the boxes have run their course.  Eric says I have to dig deep down into the coldest part of my heart and there I will know what to do with them when they are out of commission (his suggestion-let's fill them with gasoline... he's kidding but yikes!).

The bookshelves that I built from this book are three oak verticals and 7 horizontal pine shelves.  It is put together using housed lap joints (think dados) and the verticals are angled such that the more weight you put on the shelves, the more stable they become.  My third dry run is making me wonder if they are stable left-to-right (swaying...) but they sure are pretty.

This is the first dry run with two/three verticals in place.

This is the final dry run with all three verticals in place

While working on this, I learned an important lesson in improvising when I make a stupid mistake.  Two of the verticals are 3/4" thick and 9" wide at the bottom.  The middle vertical is 7/8" thick and 11" wide at the bottom.  These were supposed to be 1" thick and 10" wide... so I just angled the shelves to be thicker in the middle and thinner on the ends!  This creates sort of a boat- shape to the shelves.  Also, I measured the distance from the floor to the light switch after I'd measured out all of the shelf separations on the verticals.  They were supposed to be 7" from the floor, then 13" from the bottom to the second to the bottom shelf, then 12" then 11" etc.  This wasn't going to work out with the location of the light switch on the only wall that this piece will fit, but I'd already kind of committed... soooooo the first three shelves have 13" of clearance, then 10", 9", 8".  It still looks good to me!

Finished Produce with 1 book on it

Finished Product with all of our books!  It makes the room seem so much bigger! (it's not, it's still tiny)

And so, with that, my one day shelves became five day shelves.  BUT, they are done and they look beautiful!

I learned how to make housed lap joints, and use my new fixed base router that my friend Jen bought me for Christmas!

Next Up- a shaker style dresser... I am a little nervous about making dovetails, but... I have a jig, so I can cheat my way through :c)