At our house we have tons of books. It has gotten to the point that we don't have enough room for them all anymore. So I decided to build a bookshelf for my son's room. I went to Ana White's website. She has tons of free building plans for everything - beds, bookshelves, tables, chairs, desks - anything you can think of. If you haven't visited her site go check it out. It's amazing. I used the loft bed, small bookcase and desk plans, but I only made the bookshelf portion. I used a special jig we bought for another project and drilled pocket holes for the screws so they wouldn't be visible. Here's a tip: When placing your shelf, measure and draw a line. Then line up the shelf on the line when you screw it in. Just make sure your on the correct side of the line. Yeah, I screwed it in on the wrong side of the line and the shelf was sloping to the left. Luckily I noticed before the glue had dried and it was easily fixed. I had some baseboards that I used for some trim to add a little more detail to it. I think it just makes the piece. Then I filled all the holes and sanded everything down. Then I painted it a flat black that we had left over from something else. I think it's easier to paint it before you put the back on. I decided that I didn't like the flat paint. So I sprayed on some clear glossy spray paint. Total cost for my project? Since I had the paint, backing, glue, and baseboards on hand, it only cost $20 for the wood and some screws.
