When we moved into our new house, my bookshelves didn’t work like they had in the old house. The one that had been custom-made for our upstairs hallway only fit on one wall in my daughter’s room. That meant I had roughly 100 books without a home.
That simply wouldn’t do.
But I wasn’t sure how to solve this problem until I went to the Parade of Home Remodeler’s Tour earlier this year. I was inspired by a set of bookshelves someone made using just brackets and boards. It could be placed anywhere.
In other words, I could take advantage of wall space that wasn’t good for much else. Like in my stairwell and my upstairs hallway. In general, I hate hallways because I think they’re a waste of space. But my mom saw potential in mine. After looking hard at it every day for two months, I saw it too.
The original plan was to put bookshelves above the door frames on both sides. But I wasn’t sure how to fit in the brackets with all the door openings. And what would I do at the far wall where I would have to link up three sides?
I decided to start with one shelf and work from there.
Off I trotted to Home Depot for the brackets and the white melanine shelves. I spent forever standing in the aisle trying to figure out what type of bracket to buy, and ended up with a plain white one. I liked its simple lines. The brackets were about $6 each, but I bought three for each 10-inch-wide by 6-foot long shelf. The boards weren’t too much either, but I think I spent as much on these shelves as I would have on a free-standing bookshelf from Ikea. And it would have used up floor space I didn’t have. The goal was to take advantage off any cranny I had.
NEED:
• Screws (the ones that came with the brackets are junk and I immediately stripped them out.) I recommend 2-inch-long screws.
• Stud finder
• Power screwgun
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Shelves
• Brackets
PUT ‘EM UP
I used the ceiling as my base point for measuring and just hoped that it wasn’t too uneven. After I found the studs, I measured down for each support bracket, placing a pencil mark where the two met. I made the shelf even with the top of the trim around the doors in case I extend the shelves. The toughest part was at the far end where I couldn’t get a ladder directly underneath what I was working on. That meant I couldn’t put my full weight/strength behind the screw gun. The nails went in slower, and I admit, more crooked.
After the brackets were up, I popped the shelf on. Then I screwed a little screw into the front hole on the bracket to keep the shelf from sliding around.
In hindsight, I would have picked a slimmer shelf. The shelf is just wider than I need for the paperbacks I put up there. And I definitely won’t be putting a shelf on both sides of the hallway as I think that will close the space in too much. I also decided to just do one row as otherwise I think we will hit our heads in the middle of the night.
MORE COWBELL — ER SHELVES
After enjoying the first shelf I put up for a few weeks, I decided that a better place for them would be at the top of the stairs. The wall is really high there, and I just knew all that space could be put to good use.
Back off to Home Depot. This time I decided to do shorter and skinner shelves (4 foot by 8 inch) — but more of them. The smaller brackets and shorter shelves were cheaper than the larger ones had been. Because I had my method down, they went up faster. Between the new ones and the old ones, my children’s/teen chapter books have a place of their own. Perfect! And for now I have two shelves on my big corner bookshelf that are empty. Finally I have some room to grow.
It’s time to catalogue! Anyone know off a good app/website that helps organize one’s collection of books? I want to made a complete list — and I don’t want it to take forever. I have a lot of books.
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