Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Drawer bookshelf

About 3 years ago while looking through my favorite magazine, Country Living I stumbled upon this project.


Photo by Country Living

Making this is not quite as easy as it appears. Unless you,
A) Have a old dresser lying around
or
B) Feel like seeking out the right one for the job.
But, then either way afterwards you will have a frame to dispose of...

My solution, get just the drawers.
I went to our local ReBuilding Center. If you live in Portland, OR then the ReBuilding Center is the perfect place to get the drawers. I payed between 2 and 5 dollars per drawer. Another place to get drawers is Habitat for Humanity ReStore. There is a store in almost every state. The only thing to make sure of is that your drawers are somewhat the same size.

Directions
  • After you get them home you need to decide whether they should be painted and/or wallpapered. I chose not to paint mine and just wallpapered the insides. After cutting the paper to fit, spray adhesive the paper and adhere to the drawers.
  • Decide how you want the drawers arranged: vertical or horizontal and in what order.

  • I choose horizontal.

  • Attach them to each other. Making sure that the drawers are level along the way. Attach each drawer to the ones around it.


  • Lastly, attach the top drawers to the wall. If you have more than two across then attaching the end two is just fine. For added stability use a stud finder (I checked and they won't help you find your boyfriend or husband...I know, lame joke) to locate the studs in the wall and drill screws into them.
When creating your bookcase feel free to get creative. I have built this two different ways. I used the same drawers just for different purposes and arrangements.

At our Portland house
Sorry this photo is kind of lame... just pretend that the shelves go across and down the other side :)

and at our new house

I am sure that you could come up with another way to make it work for you.
How would you build yours? Feel free to ask any questions too :)

6 comments:

  1. Very cool idea and your version is beautiful!!! BTW, thank you so very much for you lovely comment on my "little" Wisteria surprise, it was so nice of you:)

    xo,

    Abby

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  2. Yay! I made the blog, tattoos and all.

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  3. Thank you!

    Brit, you totally need to make one under your window in the living room! it would look awesome :)

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