First Build

Books, books, books...they are all over the place around here. Not that I don't like having books, I'm probably the one at fault for buying/borrowing them all. I just can't resist when I see a really good one from school, or if one of the kids show a real interest in one of the titles from Strong Start. I've tried to organize them in a small way by having majority of them kept on a high shelf and just setting out a small selection in a basket around the house. The only problem is that basket is A HUGE MESS. Especially now that there are books for both Maddy and Ethan, the basket is crammed beyond capacity and the books are getting wrecked from being stuff in there. Here is what our book basket looked like:

So for my first build I decided to try one of Ana White's easiest plans. They are copied after Pottery Barn's shelves. These cost about $50 for the size that I made.

This was a great project because I learned how to use the drill properly and I learned how to cut that curve using a coping saw. One thing I need to get better at is filling in the holes with wood putty. I had to redo quite a few of them, but in the end the are mostly hidden. I also decided to distress the wood at the corners/edges and put a stain over the entire thing for a more rustic look. The lumber for 2 shelves cost about $15 each and since I already had a lot of the paint and stain, this project didn't cost any more.