How Make a Basic Beginner Bookcase

We have two amazing used bookstores in our town. When my grandkids come to visit, we have to visit the bookstores multiple times.

During their six-week visit in the summer of 2023, all the grandkids accumulated many books! All three of them love to read so I can't say 'no' to more books.

The middle grand had run out of room for books in his room so he asked if we could make him bookshelves. The answer was of course 'yes!'

​So plans were made, lumber was bought and bookshelves took shape! It was fun to work with him on this project. 

This is a perfect beginner project. 

Watch the video for more detail!

Materials/Tools:

• (7) 1x10-8ft Common Board (Home Depot)
• 1/8 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. Utility Panel (Home Depot)
• Milwaukee Cordless Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw (Home Depot)
• Kreg Shelf-Pin Jig (Amazon)
• Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 720 (Home Depot)
• Titebond 1 gal. Premium Wood Glue (Home Depot)
• Rockler Clamp-It Assembly Square (Amazon)
• Dewalt Carbon Fiber Stapler/Tacker (Home Depot)
• Dewalt 50 in. 600 lb. Trigger Clamp w/3.75 in. Throat Depth (Home Depot)

Cut List for one bookcase. We made two.

• Cut (2) 47”
• Cut (4) 30”

This is where we got my grandson involved in the building process. After some show and tell with the shelf pin jig and pocket hole jig, we allowed him to use both jigs to make the holes. He cleaned up the shelf pin holes with a Dremel rotary tool. We are using pocket holes and wood glue for assembling the bookcase.

After he finished cleaning up the holes, all the boards were sanded. My grandson declined to help with the sanding!

We all worked together to do the gluing and assembly. We glued the two center supports back to back with the pin holes facing out. We're using a couple of Rockler gluing tools which make this easy.

Having three sets of hands made the assembly go a lot smoother. Once in place, we added glue to the connection points and put in the screws.

We determined the shelf placement by using some of my grandson's books. He will be able to easily moved them to different heights as his book collection changes over the years.

My grandson helped with this step as well and he chose the colors he wanted for his two bookshelves. He likes color so these two leftover paints were perfect. We did prime first before painting.

We added a thin utility panel to the back to give the unit a more finished look and more structural strength. My grandson was able to staple this into place himself. That's a DeWalt Carbon Fiber staple gun which is one of the easiest we've found to use. It doesn't require a lot of hand strength like a traditional stapler.

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