Building DIY Floating Bookshelves for Our Kid’s Bedroom

Organization takes priority in our house! When we notice something that needs organizing, it immediately goes to the top of our to-do list.

A good example was the books in our kid’s room. He loves reading and has been getting a lot of books. At first, the books were organized on top of his dresser, however, as he kept getting more and more, the top of the dresser was no longer the right place for them, it was starting to look a bit disorganized. It was also getting harder for him to find the books he wanted to read, and even harder to keep them organized after taking a few of them in and out of the stack.

As a result, we decided to build some DIY floating bookshelves for him.

DIY FLOATING BOOKSHELVES FOR OUR KID’S BEDROOM

Although I cannot say that I love working with wood (I mostly dislike sanding), we have a reasonable amount of plywood, pallets and other pieces of wood, leftover from other projects that we haven’t used yet. So when we thought about organizing the books, the first thing that came to our minds was building something with the wood we need and want to make use of. After considering different options and shelf designs, we chose this one because it required less labor and materials. Well, mostly the labor part, we wanted a nice, but quick fix, I didn’t want to spend two weeks working on the shelves.

Other than the 3/4 inch wood boards, the list of materials you need to complete a similar project includes:

• Measuring Tape
• Table & Miter Saws
• Mini Jig & Drill
• Primer, Paint & Painting Supplies
• Air Compressor & Pneumatic Nail Gun (Optional)
• Wood Glue
• Stud Finder, Levels & Screws

STEP 1: CUT THE WOOD TO SIZE AND SAND ALL THE PIECES

Before we even got to this step, we decided how long and deep we wanted the bookshelves to be. As I said before, we also considered different designs, however, we chose this one because it required less labor and materials.

We wanted the shelves to be 30 inches long, and 4 inches deep (total). Because the wood boards we used are 3/4-inch thick, we decided to add a 1 1/2-inch “trim” piece to the front of each shelf. This trim piece would serve two purposes, one, keep the books from sliding off the shelves, and two, make them look a bit thicker than they are.

When I was about to start cutting the main shelves wood pieces (that we got from our friend back when we built the first floating shelves) I realized that they were 29 inches long, so I didn’t have to cut them anymore. This resulted in the shelves being 29 inches long instead of 30, but close enough to not make a big difference.

Because we wanted them to be 4 inches deep, I also went ahead and cut five different boards (lengthwise) at 3 1/4 inches (once we add the 3/4-inch trim pieces they are 4 inches deep).

Then, I cut the 5 trim pieces at 29 inches by 1 1/2 inches wide.

Finally, I went ahead and sanded all the wood pieces.

 

STEP 2: DRILL HOLES ON THE MAIN SHELVES PIECES USING THE MINI JIG

With the boards sanded and ready to go, I proceeded to drill some holes with the mini jig. I did not drill these holes wherever I wanted though, I checked and marked their location so that they would align with the bedroom wall’s studs.

Because the studs are 16 inches apart, and the boards are 29 inches long, I was only able to use two studs to hold the shelves. This should be more than enough, though, because the books are not heavy.

 

STEP 3: PRIME AND PAINT THE SHELVES PIECES

Right after drilling the holes, it was time to prime and paint all the wood boards. I put a coat of primer and two coats of white paint.

 

 

 

STEP 4: ASSEMBLE THE BOOKSHELVES

The next day, after the paint was completely dry, I started assembling the bookshelves. It didn’t take long at all, and all I needed was some wood glue and finishing nails. Perhaps using just nails would have been good enough, but, I don’t know, I just thought about gluing them as well.

 

 

 

After the nails, I used some white wood putty to cover the holes. Then I put an extra coat of paint on the trim pieces to make sure neither the holes nor the putty was visible.

STEP 5: INSTALL THE DIY FLOATING BOOKSHELVES

Sometime after, I don’t remember if it was the same or the next day, I went ahead and installed the shelves, using the stud finder, a couple of levels and the drill. I used one of the levels to make sure the shelves were leveled and the other one -long- to make sure that they were aligned on the wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each shelf has two supporting screws because as I said before, I could only use two wall studs.

 

Moments later, Carla organized the books, and this is how it turned out! Our kid loved it!

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