How To Make DIY Timber Hanging Bookshelves
Step by step instructions to make your own hanging bookshelves
G'day guys, we're back for another DIY Friday! Today we're going to show you how to make a timber hanging bookshelf as part of our Nursery Series. This is a super simple DIY project perfect for beginners.
We love this for any room in the house and you can easily adjust the length measurement to suit any space. We’ve made this to match our DIY Floating Shelf Coat Rack which you can check out here.
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See you next Friday for another DIY project as part of our Nursery Series.
AL + IMO
“A great beginner woodworking project!”
TOOLS
TAPE MEASURE
PENCIL
TABLE SAW OR CIRCULAR SAW
DRILL
25mm DRILL BIT
NAIL GUN
SANDER OR SANDPAPER
PROTECTIVE GEAR
SAFETY GLASSES
EAR PROTECTION
MATERIALS
GLUE
NAILS
TIMBER - HARDWOOD
LONG BOOKSHELF-
BACK - 1 x 950mmL x 115mmW x 15mm thick
BASE - 1 x 950mmL x 80mmW x 15mm thick
ENDS - 130mmH x 80mmW x 25mm thick
DOWEL - 954mmL x 25mm thick
SHORT BOOKSHELF -
BACK - 1 x 800mmL x 115mmW x 15mm thick
BASE - 1 x 800mmL x 80mmW x 15mm thick
ENDS - 130mmH x 80mmW x 25mm thick
DOWEL - 804mmL x 25mm thick
*You can easily adjust the length of your shelves to suit any space in your home.
Step 1.
The first thing you need to do is cut your timber and dowel to the right sizes using the cut list above.
Step 2.
Sand all of your pieces nice and smooth, I even planed the edges to remove the saw marks. I used 120 grit sandpaper.
Step 3.
From the front edge of your end pieces measure the centre (65mm) and mark 13mm in. Using a 25mm drill bit drill your holes to a depth of around 3mm - these holes will house your dowel. I marked my drill-bit at 3mm with a marker to make sure I didn’t drill through to the other side.
Step 4.
Glue and nail your top and back shelf together, then nail on one end. Dry fit your dowel to check that it fits nice and snug, if you need to make any adjustments now is the time. Glue in your dowel and nail the other end on.
Step 5.
Sand all of your edges smooth and clean up any remaining glue. You can use a chisel one the glue is dry to get into those tricky spaces and around the dowel .
Step 6.
And that’s it, we used a hard-wax oil to seal our piece. After the first coat was dry we filled the nail holes with a matching colour putty, gave the shelves a light sand and applied a second coat.
Step 7.
When fixing to the wall make sure you find the studs in the wall for a secure hold.
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Hey!
We’re Al + Imo
We’re a husband and wife duo, building our dream life one DIY project at a time. We are proudly self-taught, furniture-makers, business owners, designers and stylists.
DIY RUNS IN OUR DNA
We firmly believe what you learn should be shared which is why we created our Journal. A place where you can learn new skills and be inspired by other creatives.
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