Playing Card Display Shelf

This is a remake of the shelf I use to house my personal card collection. This shelf holds 6 front-facing decks in the center section instead of 7, but you can add 3" to the (7) horizontal pieces if you'd like the bigger size or feel free to tweak the dimensions to whatever size works for you.

(3) 1"x4"x8' pieces of wood

1-1/4" Pocket Screws if you have a jig, or you can use dowels/glue or go with exposed hardware and standard wood screws

1/4" Dowels

220-Grit Sandpaper

Semi-Transparent Stain

Make the following cuts:

(2) 29-1/4"

(3) 25-1/2"

(4) 18"

(4) 13-1/2"

*In the picture I'm building 2 shelves, so you'll end up with only one set of boards

Sand each board to around a 220 grit. I personally like to chamfer all of the edges for a more polished appearance and easier handling.

Assuming you're using pocket hole joinery, now is the time to drill your pocket holes on the 7 horizontal boards (25-1/2" and 18"). Find the less appealing side of each board and drill two pocket holes on each end of that side using the correct settings on your jig and drill bit for 3/4" thick wood.

Sand again around the pocket holes - if you plan on filling the holes with dowels for no visible hardware, be careful not to remove too much material which will cause a void at that point. I personally prefer to leave the pocket hole open and stain inside of it to make future repairs/disassembly easier. With a darker stain they're very hard to see, especially when the playing cards are on the shelf. In that case, I like to sand thoroughly in the hole to get everything smooth and rounded before staining.

Use a semi-transparent liquid stain to thoroughly coat each board. Make sure to wipe all stain residue off thoroughly when done so that you don't stain the card decks later on. I like to leave the stain to sit for 24 hours before I assemble the shelf. You can certainly coat with a polyurethane to seal the stain, but for the typical indoor nature of this shelf it's not necessary.

Take the 8 smallest pieces and assemble into two "H" structures as shown. The longer horizontal pieces will sit 4" from the top and bottom edge of the smaller vertical pieces. If you used pocket hole joinery, make sure to do the upper horizontal piece first so that you have access to the screw hole.

If you don't have a pocket hole jig, you can use 1/4" dowels and glue to make the attachment. As a third option, you could use standard wood screws and attach from the outside - preferably by drilling and countersinking the holes first.

Take the two longest pieces (29-1/4") which are your vertical sides, and attach one of the three 25-1/2" horizontal pieces with pocket screws from the inside or wood screws from the outside by aligning the top edge. I highly suggest clamps to prevent sliding if you have ones that are long enough. If you are using wood screws, be sure to drill and countersink the holes to prevent splitting since you're near the edge of the wood.

Take one of the "H" structures and place it against the top horizontal beam such that there is a 3" gap on each side. Use dowels and glue (or just a high-strength wood glue) to attach.

If you don't have a doweling jig, you can use a nail by hammering the head into the first piece so that half of the circular head is embedded in the wood. Align the pieces, and use a mallet on one of pieces to create a matching impression in the second piece of wood. Look up this technique on YouTube if you need more guidance.

Use dowels and wood glue (or just wood glue) to attach the bottom of the "H" structure to the middle horizontal piece as shown. Clamp everything tightly and attach the middle horizontal piece to the vertical sides using pocket screws or wood screws. This should hold everything assembled so far tightly in place, with the dowels and/or glue just preventing any movement.

Essentially this step is the same as Step 8. You're using the same dowel and/or glue method to attach the bottom "H" structure so that there is a 3" gap left on each side.

The shelf is now complete and you can move on to attaching mounting hardware if you plan on attaching to a wall. My personal recommendation is PicGenie which is available at Home Depot, but definitely make sure you're mounting to at least one stud. This shelf holds a lot of cards, and you'd be surprised how heavy it can end up when it gets loaded.

You can see from the pictures here that this shelf looks good even with only a dozen decks, but can hold hundreds if needed. The center shelves will fit 6 forward-facing decks, or dozens of side-facing decks. The 3" spaces on the sides are intended to hold stacks of cards (perfect for duplicates) but work well for decorations as well.