Built-in Bookshelf for my Son's Room

The final thing we are adding to our son's room is a two-foot wide built in bookshelf, where his old closet used to be. It's 10" deep, which allows for an 18" deep linen closet backing up to it.


Here is the bookshelf unit before it was installed. This is a very simple design: 3/4" plywood sides and shelves; 3/8" bead board plywood for the back; MDF face frame pieces. I sanded, primed and painted all the pieces before assembly, saving a lot of effort.


Here is the unit installed in the wall, with side trim applied. It is shimmed solidly in place, with finish nails holding it.


This bookshelf matches the other ones we installed in our basement, to give continuity throughout the house.

Painting Built-in Bookshelves

We finally painted the built-in bookshelves I installed in the basement. Here is a picture of one of the smaller units that flanks the theater room...


Since we had quite a bit to paint (total of 14 x 7 feet), I decided to buy a paint sprayer to complete the job. We are going to be working on the outside of the house next year, plus the new garden shed, so a sprayer is in order.

After doing some research - and getting a great deal at Costco, I decided to buy the Wagner Paint Crew Plus painter.


The best online price for this is about $230. Costco had it on sale for $210, plus a $50 in-store rebate, so I picked it up for $160. I was originally planning on going with a low-end Graco model for $300, but at this price I figured it was worth a try. I bought the original paint crew unit for $150 about 3 years ago. It worked OK, but failed after about 6 months. The reviews of the Plus model indicate the reliability is much improved.

Bottom line: It sprayed paint well. I had it turned down to the minimum flow rate, and it produced a nice smooth finish. I did have to back roll a few spots where too much pain hit the front of the bookcase while I was spraying the back - any unit will do this. Also, it was pretty easy to clean - took about 15 minutes. Some of the reviews complained about the complexity of cleaning up, but I am not sure what they expect - if you shoot paint through something, its going to be a bit messy.

Here is the larger shelf unit:



And here is a close-up of the painted beadboard in the back of the shelves:



We still need to texture the surrounding walls (hopefully tomorrow), before trimming these out. I plan on letting these sit for at least three days to give the paint a chance to cure before putting any books in them.

Putting in more built-in bookshelves

I finally got back to working on the basement... To get my motivation back up, I decided to work on the rest of built-in bookshelves I needed to do. This rendered image shows the plan:


This mainly shows the entrance to the theater room. The photos below are of the unit on the left.

Here is the rough opening. I framed it a couple of inches wider than the bookshelves to give myself plenty of room to adjust them. Wrestling the units into place is fun enough, without having to work with a tight space. Adding the extra shims on the sides only takes a minute.


Notice in the picture below that is there quite a bit of blocking above the bookshelf. The top of the opening is the original sheetrocked surface of the air-duct soffit, and this gap will be covered by the trim.

Why not build the bookshelves a couple of inches taller and take advantage of the space? The reason is the window opening to the left. I built these shelves so that the top would be even with the top of the window casing. This will make the top trim pieces line up horizontally. I have blogged about this in the past - slightly uneven trim heights are a sure indicator of an amateur job.


I installed the shelves as two pieces, with a 3/8" filler strip in between. This makes getting the units aligned a lot easier. The filler strip acts as a "hinge" to allow for a better alignment. If you put the two flat sides of the bookshelves directly together, you can have the following problems:
- they may not be exactly flat, and you have to force them together - if you can
- your wall may not be straight, and shelves won't easily align to the front surface, since they are a "solid" unit.
- when you are building your shelves, you don't have to countersink the side screws, etc.


This picture shows the front trim strips applied...


I find it much easier to put the front trim on after the units are in place. The vertical strip in the center covers the edges of both the units, making it look like a single large assembly. Since these are going to be painted, I just front-nail and them fill the holes. If this were finished wood, I would have made rabbited / dadoed trim that could be blind nailed.

Finally, since these shelves are under three feet wide, I could have made them using a single shelf all the way across. When I drew it up, it looked more utilitarian than I wanted. The cost to do it as two units was about $10 more, and i think it looks much nicer.

Costs:
- Qty 1 - 4x8 sheet of 3/8" beadboard plywood for the back (Lowes) $20.
- Qty 1 - 4x8 sheet of 1/2" birch plywood for the sides (Shurway) $22
- Approx 3/4 of a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" birch plywood for the shelves (Home Depot) $28 as sheet.
- Approx 10 sf of 3/4" MDF (Home Depot) - $26 a sheet
- Total cost with glue, fasterners, etc. - $60. This does not include primer, paint or final trim outside time. So figure $80 for the whole thing.

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.

Building Bookshelves #2

We had great weather in Portland, so I was able to get the beadboard bookshelves built and installed today (and get the Christmas lights up). The following photo set shows the process.

Here are the routed uprights:

Shelves attached to the first side:


I glued and stapled these in place.

I put in two screws to hold the shelves in tight during assembly:

I flipped it over to it's other side:

And put the other upright on:

Here is my son helping out a bit:

Here are two of the shelving units standing upright, after I glued and stapled the beadboard plywood to the backs:

Close-up shot of the shelves:

The installation of the four units went really well. I shimmed the right side plumb, and went from there. I put a few shims in a the back against the studs, but mainly sprayed expanding insulation foam back there.

Each unit has a 3/8" spacer (extra beadboard) between it and the next. This allows for easy adjustment. It makes the units has as through they were hinged, so they can be aligned.

Now I need to put the faceframe pieces on, then trim it out.

Building Bookshelves #1

I started building the built-in bookshelves that go into basement. The diagram here shows where the first set will go.


The unit will be 7 feet tall and 8 feet wide. There will also be two more units of hte same design at the other end of the basement. These will each be about 3 1/2 feet wide. Here is the concept from the computer model of the house:


I was cut the uprights out of 1/2 prefinshed (on one side) plywood that was left over from our kitchen cabinets I built. We are painting these, so I turned the finished side outwards. The shelves are out of 3/4 hardwood plywood.

I used a one foot speed square to lay out the lines for the shelves. I always make an X mark on the side of the line where the shelf goes, so I don't get confused later on.


I decided to route 1/8" deep dadoes into the uprights to make assebly easy. My initial plan was to just glue and screw the shelves together, which would give plenty of support. The downside of this is that I would have to hold each shelf exactly square. Dados provide easy alignment, so it was worth the extra effort.

Here is the jig I built to simplify the routing...


The jig works with my trim router. Sincne these dadoes are only 1/8" deep, it cuts them easily. Whenever possible, I use the trim router instead of a larger one, since it's light and easy to handle with one hand. Also, this one cost me $20 at Harbor Freight on sale (been going strong for 3 years), and it's the one I want to use up.


Here is a completed upright. Now on to mounting the shelves...