Bookshelf Project

Sylvie's new bookshelves:

Bookshelves made from, wait for it... rain gutters.  Thank you Pinterest!

When I was pregnant last year, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at baby rooms. I found these bookshelves made from Ikea Spice Racks:

Ikea spice rack bookshelves, from blog: http://darceeintoodeep.blogspot.com/

The spice racks are only about $3, and if you leave them natural wood color, it's virtually no work. So, I got super excited about this "project" (read: screwing a shelf into a wall) and headed off to Ikea, which is about an hour from my house. When I got there I found out they had no spice racks in stock and weren't sure if they were going to get any more, ever. I've been sad about this ever since - I am a complete bookworm (and have a graduate degree in literature) and loved the idea of books everywhere. Since that project fell, the books have been in an ever growing stack on her dresser (getting high enough that they were going to start falling everywhere). So, I've been looking for another solution.

I didn't want a traditional bookshelf though; I wanted her to be able to see the books and easily get them for herself when she's old enough. So, with some more pinteresting, I found a new way to create bookshelves for kids - raingutters!

Rain gutter bookshelves!

It's cheap and really really easy project (if we count in drive time to Ikea, and navigating the store, this is actually an easier project). Since they are already white, they look more finished.

Supplies needed:

1 10' vinyl rain gutter (cut in half - they should be able to do this for you at the hardware store)
6 gutter brackets (3 per shelf)
4 end caps
6 screws
Screwdriver (electric)
Level

Directions:

Put end caps on each of the gutters. Try to find studs to screw brackets into. Screw one bracket most of the way in, then use a level before screwing in the next bracket. Screw additional in additional brackets.  That's it. You're done!

Ridiculously easy project.  As you can see, her room is very small, so this also helps us make use of a wall that we can't put any furniture up against. We put one of the shelves very low, so that as soon as she is walking, she should be able to reach them on her own. The other shelf is a little higher, so that when she's around 3 or 4, she can reach that shelf. The idea was to put the board books on the lower shelf, and paper books higher (since right now, she likes to eat paper).