Books, Books, and room for even more Books

It is a dream come true to have a reading nook in my bedroom. It is all mine. Rae and Rose are not allowed in the room without permission. Mr. R&R is only invited in to hang things on the wall. As previously mentioned, the dogs break the rules and sleep in my chair (the chair is so cozy). An early Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a book in my comfy chair is heavenly. An ideal reading nook would not be complete without a bookshelf. Challenge accepted.

Bookshelf in my reading nook!

My vision was a bookshelf less than half the height of the wall that filled the depth of the reading nook. The bookshelf also needed to be super sturdy to support the weight of future book acquisitions. Keeping all of this in mind, I wanted the bookshelf sooner as opposed to later and the monthly budget only allowed for the use of 2x4s.

Here are the construction details according to Mr. R&R:

Close-Up of Finish

I first took 3 – 8 foot 2X4s and put them together using dowels and wood glue to create all of the shelves and dividers. Once all those combined boards were put together they were sanded, then painted with a blue undercoat of paint/primer mix, then painted with a top coat of grey. After all the paint dried, I then went back with 120 grit sandpaper and an orbital sander and scuffed up the boards to reveal the blue undercoat, with heavier sanding on the edges and corners to create a natural distressed look. Then a coat of a light stain/polyurethane was applied and left to dry, then a quick light sanding with 320 grit sandpaper and a final coat of just polyurethane for a nice smooth finish. I then utilized 3 of those new 8 foot long by 8 1/4″ wide combined boards as the bottom, middle, and top shelves. I then cut the remaining boards into 14″ sections and those would be used as the end supports and dividers on the bookshelf and secured those with dowels and wood glue as well. I put together the bottom and middle shelf with dividers separate from the top shelf and dividers, due to the weight it needed to be delivered and assembled in 2 pieces. Now all we had to do was place the top shelf on the bookshelf and adhere it with more dowels and wood glue.