Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

Hey guys! Here is a “blast from the past” tutorial that has been sitting in my archives for forever… seriously, it’s about time it sees the light of day!

Oh yeah, don’t mind the door-less kitchen cabinets in the background. I took these photos weeks ago when I was working on repainting the kitchen. Newsflash: I still have two more doors that need to be hanged. And I thought I could paint them & be done in 2 days. HA! #life

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

So, by popular request, here is the tutorial for the bookshelf that goes along with my amazing DIY desk. You can see that tutorial (and the plans) HERE.

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

This shelf was designed to utilize an awesome corner space in our last on in USMC base housing. We don’t have a spot exactly like that in our new house, so my desk is a stand alone right now, and the shelf is currently being used in our living room.

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

I’ve actually shuffled things around in our new home since these photos were taken. Everything looks totally different since we painted & rearranged our furniture. Since I didn’t take too many great photos of it in our last house, I wanted to share some additional angles of it.

By the way, the above TV console with pallet crates was a DIY from our last house too.

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

Everyone always mentions this bookshelf when they visit our house for the first time, and it makes my husband and me chuckle every time. This is such an easy project guys. Seriously. No fancy tools or angles needed! If you don’t own a normal saw, you could even get away with having your lumber store do the cuts for you & just using a drill + screws at home.

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

Speaking of simple, check out how we supported the shelves! SUPER EASY & I think it looks amazing.

The books though… not so pretty.

I want to wrap them in paper, or stack them all with their pages showing, but I don’t think my husband would appreciate me messing with all his history, football, and political books. Oh, and those white three ring binders? Yeah, those are full of magazine clippings from the Patriot’s almost perfect season. I say a bookshelf should look pretty & have everything match… and garage rubbermaids are for football books… my husband says bookshelves are for books…. hmmm, I guess he does have a point….

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

I am horrible at drawing up plans digitally. My bran can only handle so many programs. Lol! So since this is such a simple build, I just drew the steps on the photo. Haha.

So here are the specifications to help you build your own bookshelf:

1. 1″x12″x8′ board for the top and bottom.

2. Shelf boards were about 31″ long each (still using the same size of 1″x12″x8′ board, cut into 31″ sections.)

3. The shelf supports were made of a 1×2″ board, cut into 12″ wide segments (to fit the width of the shelves) and just drilled straight into the supporting boards shown in step 4.

4. The supporting side boards are made up of four segments cut from a 1″x12″x8′ board, making them 31″ tall.

Each board is connected to each other using at least 3 screws drilled directly into them from a flat angle. It’s best to predrill, and you can putty over the holes in the end if you like.

See how I stained this desk/bookshelf HERE.

Easy DIY Booskshelf | With Building Plans

It is so pretty. I love it!

Can’t wait to show you the NEW things I am up to these days. Seriously, I am in LOVE! Check out my instagram @welivedhappilyeverafter account for a behind the sneak peek.

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  1. Thank you for showing us how to build this! I really like it. I think the simplicity of it really makes it a neat shelf. As for the books, I'm a HUGE reader, so my hubs and I have a million books… I put mine in color blocks, and it truly makes a huge difference in how they look! My hubs doesn't like that they aren't alphabetical or by genre, but they look really pretty with all the colors sorted together:)

  2. Oh! And maybe you could buy a long (lenght) but short (height) basket and put all of the binders in? So it at least adds a touch of pretty to them 🙂

  3. Alice Styles says:

    This looks amazing, It is too bad that there isn't far enough space in my house for them.

  4. I just found your site. I poked around a little and love it. I like the way the shelves are simple and logical. You are great teacher. I did have a question about the desk, is it difficult to write or draw on because of the spaces between the boards?

    I am sure you are accumulating more notebooks after last night! You could always decorate them with logos and dates, they will look nice and will be easy to find the content. Your fonts are so beautiful that I am sure it would only enhance the binders!

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