DIY Custom Bookshelves

This project is back from my nesting craze last year when I was pregnant. My husband and I were living in an apartment with my mother in law.  I was in my final teaching internship so I was gone basically all day (like now) only when I came home I could NOT relax. Despite swollen ankles and an aching back I was stir-crazy beyond belief and I just had to get things done!

One project I had my eye on was doing something about the books stacked on our dresser. Looking back on it now- it really wasn't so bad... but at the time it irked me to no end to see those books stacked there.  They needed a home!  All my bookshelves had been lost or broken during previous moves and so my poor books just sat in homeless stacks on our dresser.

So... I set to work.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So here's the quick and simple process for custom-decorated bookshelves.  :)

Please excuse the mess on the floor. I seem to recall that I was mid-process of reorganizing our closet at that point. What I would kill for a little bit of that motivation now...an occasional burst of energy would also be nice. ;)

Anyway-  I had my eye on some plain white bookcases from Walmart.  They were cheap- and perfect for our budget. I convinced Brandon to let me "invest" in a couple, and he agreed.  At that point I ran immediately to the store to get them- and insisted on bringing them up to our third floor apartment right away. Being hugely pregnant and the bookcases being surprisingly heavy, I ended up opening the boxes in the car and carrying the shelves up piece by piece.  My mother in law helped carry some of the pieces up too.

After the shelves were all upstairs, I enlisted Brandon at his next available moment to start assembling them. (I even did a bit of hammering myself!)

And while he finished up- I began the beautification process of the shelves. First I ran some Elmer's "tape" glue across the face of the shelves.  This was easily the most difficult part of the whole process. The only reason being that the "glue" was clear and it was difficulty for me to see without a bright light reflecting off the surface.  If I did it again- I think I might use some kind of fabric glue. I was worried that using hot glue would cause the ribbon to become discolored.

The benefit of the tape was that it didn't dry out or run anywhere. I would have liked it to be stickier but in the end I'm happy with my choice.

  

Next I measured and cut some ribbon to lay across the front.  Here I was laying down the first ribbon while I was taking the picture so you can see it was starting to go on a little crooked.  Nice thing about the Elmer's tape-glue stuff was that I could lift the ribbon up and stick it right back down again.  

I used a trick I learned from laying down masking tape lines in theatre technology. Stick the very left edge down, and hold the ribbon up directly above the rest of the surface before sticking it down. Basically, line up the ribbon ABOVE the surface and then while you are holding it there use your other hand to slowly smooth it down from left to right. (... Let me know if that doesn't make sense and I'll try to explain it a little better.)

Super simple- I've seen people get really creative with some cute stuff decorating the edges, but this is a quick cheap way to dress-up a bookcase (or dresser?) in just a few minutes!  You could easily stick some ribbon, fringe, lace, buttons, etc... on the shelves after it's already assembled too!

I love alternating my books vertically and horizontally on the shelves to give some visual texture.  Weaving some knickknacks in with the books can help break-up the rectangular look and make a bookshelf an interesting focal point instead of a regular piece of storage furniture.

I also like the idea of mixing reading-levels on a bookshelf. Now that our little man is actually here and reading books is becoming a realistic part of his daily routine I will probably begin taking into consideration the "filtering" of more mature books from the shelves where he will find the books he will be looking at. (Not that any of my books are incredibly inappropriate- but I'm not sure my 8 month old is quite ready to handle the complexities of Middle Earth or Fahrenheit 451 quite yet. lol) I do want to keep some "older" books  on the shelf as he grows though to encourage him to let his reading selections grow with him. (Add beginning reader books with the picture books, then add some chapter books, young adult books, etc...)

Since we've moved one of these shelves didn't quite make the transfer. I salvaged the shelves and am currently using them in my kitchen.  The other shelf is also in my kitchen serving as a storage unit for baby food and baking supplies. It looks pretty cute! And the green matches with the citrus-y feel I'm going for in the kitchen. I'll have to fill you in with my books' new home at a future date.

Until then- happy reading!