My New Bookshelf

        In the past, I've just told you about my mom's projects that she has been working on, but I haven't told you a lot about my own. Oh wait, that's because I haven't really done one before! This past week, I have been working on building myself a bookshelf to go in my room because the little one I have had since I was, well, little, wasn't really cutting it anymore. I had book stuffed in it, on it, behind it, and under it (just kidding), as well in every corner of my already crowded room, and it wasn't working. It was driving both my mom and I crazy, and I just needed the time to make a new one. 

        The time came this past week. I drew the plans and got the wood from Home Depot on Monday. On my graph paper, one square equals two inches.

        It was expensive (nice pine boards), but it ended up turning out really well and I was pleased. I used ones tn inches wide, and bought two six foot ones and three eight foot. Here is all of the wood cut and laying out on our patio in the relative shape that I had planned:

        You have no idea the kind of gymnastics I had to do to get the above picture! :) I did the joints with both wood glue and nails, for which I drilled starter holes so that the boards wouldn't split. I got my mom to help me with the holding of everything together at the right angles, all of which, by the way, were right angles, because with drippy wood glue and nails all over the place, I couldn't have done it by myself. Thanks Mama (accent on the last syllable)!

        By the end of Tuesday, I had finished building it, sanded, punched the nails in, filled the holes, and primed more than half. I didn't work on it all day long, if you were wondering. This is drilling starter holes:

        Building from the bottom up:

        I wasn't sure if I was going to need corner brackets to help with the stability, but I didn't end up in that situation. As soon as I got it all together, it was firm as a rock. I sanded the edges and the filled places before priming, which took a while. Nice round edges:

        My sandpaper after I was done:

        Here it is primed. It didn't look any different after it had a coat of white furniture paint on, so I won't show you one of those. I decided not to put a back on because the wall I wanted to put it against in my room has an electrical outlet that I still wanted to be able to use - and because I liked the unusual look.

 

        Here it is, the finished product, up in my room with all of my books:

        I am really pleased with how it turned out, and how it has cleaned up my room! My other bookshelf is now home to my knitting and sewing things; it is about the size of the smaller half of my new one. Oh, and by the way, the walls in my room are not nearly that bright in real life!

Blessings,

Reyna