DIY Rad Bookshelves! Holla!

Before

For my birthday in August, Miss C and our amazing, handy (not to mention loving, fun, and overall most awesome in the world) dad, gave me bookshelves that I had been wanting for a long time for our livingroom. So, in February, we finally built them!

Here’s a mini how-to, mostly with pictures, because after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Which means this post is worth at LEAST 7,000 words.

Before we started, we decided what size we wanted the shelves to be, how many shelves we wanted, and estimated the spacing (with chalk on the wall – above photo) to make sure it was how we wanted it to look before we actually screwed anything in the floor.  Then I purchased the wood at a local lumber yard, and then did a couple coats of stain until I got to the color I wanted. I wasn’t super careful to make the stain even, because I wanted to go for a more aged look. Depending how many shelves you want, how deep they are, etc. you will have to get different lengths and amounts of pipes. And here I said I wasn’t going to use too many words….sorry guys… Let’s just jump in with the photos…

Step 1

Secure a flange to the floor for the base of each pipe. The flange should be screwed into the floor a couple inches closer the the wall than the depth of your shelf, and close enough together that your shelves can hang over the sides an inch or so.  The shelves are only secured at the base, and the very top, so make sure the flanges are nice and sturdy.

Then, start attaching pieces together!  Screw in the bottom vertical pipes, followed by a T-shaped pipe fitting with a horizontal pipe and elbow-shaped fitting coming out towards the wall, and lastly, another vertical pipe. Do this on both sides. At the end of this step it should look like the picture above.

Step 2

This takes a couple of people:  Hold the board on top of the pipes, and, using a pencil, draw a circle around where the pipes hit the shelf. Drill holes through the board where the circles are marked, then slide the board down over the pipes.  Attach the next set of fittings and pipes, and repeat!

Then just repeat until you get to the top shelf!

Almost there!

Last but not least

After the top shelf, attach the top pipes to the wall with two more flanges.  NOTE: The uppermost pipes going to the wall on this level need to be about an inch longer to get all the way to the wall.

Tada!  New living room shelves!

Stay tuned for a how-to on shelf styling!