How I Built a Large Black Iron Bookcase With Dimmable Lights

In our new house we had a huge empty wall, so I decided to build a shelf with an industrial and vintage style. I think the piece of furniture gives the room the personality we want and is much cheaper and fun to build!

Materials: 26 ¾" H.H elbows

                   20 ¾" tees

                   8 ¾" flanges

                   26 threaded pipes black iron coil ¾" x 30 cm.

                   26 threaded pipes black iron coil ¾" x 15 cm.

                    4 threaded pipes black iron coil ¾" x 23 cm.

                    3 metal plates 10 cm x 5 cm.

                    3 raw pine wood boards 250 cm x 3 cm thick.

                   4 boards 80 cm x 32 cm wide x 3 cm thick.

                    3 boards 70 cm x 32 cm width x 3 cm thickness.

                    1 board 160 cm x 32 cm wide x 3 cm thick.

Tools: Jigsaw

               grinder

               Planer

               Sanding machine

               Drill

               Spade bit

The first thing I did was a hand drawing of how I wanted to lay out the spaces on the wall, I had to have a work or desk space, so I had to leave a central gap. I calculated how far the tee and 90° elbow would go with the pipe to fit the width of the wood and counted how many elbows and so on I would need to order from the supply shop. Fortunately I found an online shop that supplied not only the elbows and tees but also the pipe cut and threaded to size.

It was necessary to thoroughly clean the iron parts one by one to remove the oils that usually accompany this type of material.

I wanted the wood to be as rough as possible, I wanted to get an old wood effect, so I went directly to a sawmill, the technical name is "tarugo", treated wood but practically with the bark glued, that was going to give me the possibility that the shelf would be irregular, just the effect I was looking for and that I also deliberately exaggerated with the radial. The first problem I encountered was that the wooden strips are 2.50 metres long, my wall is 3.40 metres, so I had to supplement them with 70 cm pieces. To do this I milled the boards and joined them with a 10 x 5 cm metal plate.

After sanding them conscientiously it was time to make the holes with the spade bit, once made the only thing left was to give the desired colour touch, I needed it to be dark so I chose to dye it with "bitumen of judea" diluted with a little solvent, once dry I sanded it again to give it a worn effect.

The assembly was quite easy, I just had to put the threads at the same level and place shelf after shelf. I tried different combinations until I found the one I liked the most. Then I screwed the top flanges to the wall and I had my living room complete with the bookshelf I wanted for our books!

I needed to provide my bookshelf with the light that would allow me to work in the desk area and at the same time have a warm light in the living room when needed, so I installed a dimmer and some variable led bulbs, the lamp holders are metal caps with porcelain coating, I found them in an antique shop and they date back to about 1920.