Building Bookshelves #3

I was able to get the first set of bookshelves trimmed out today. It wasn't difficult, just a lot of detail work - but as the picture shows, it was rewarding - I really like the look of them.

I would definitely not want these shelves to be adjustable. This ended up being a nice architectural feature, and having random shelf heights would take that away.

The MDF makes a nice surface for painting. It took about three hours to mill the pieces for this and the other two sets I will install later. After that it took another three hours to install the ones here.

Previously, I installed two 4" can lights as accents. These will help highlight the bookshelf.

Here are the shelf fronts, all cut over-length by about 3 inches. I decided to install the long vertical pieces first, then scribe and cut each of these horizontal ones to fit. I made a little 3/16" offset template for the verticals.

I numbered each one of these, then marked them for the cut. Once they were all marked, I cut everything at once - this is way more efficient that moving back and forth for each piece.

Here is a tip to make really accurate cuts: Put a scrap piece of the same thickness next to the fence, tack it in place (or clamp it), then cut it off. This will give the exact position of where the blade cuts. Line up the pieces you want to cut at this edge, and they will be right on.

The outside face frames are even with the sheetrock (with an 1/8") all the way around. I will trim this out the same as I would a door frame, with a 1/4" reveal.

I filled the nail holes, sanded, then filled them again with thinned down filler. Once primed, they should be invsible.