DIY Bookshelves Under the Stairs

By Noreen Doll

We are book lovers and collect volumes that we love. However, eventually you have to find places for these loved volumes.

We have an under stairs area in our living room that seemed perfect for bookshelves. We puzzled for a long time on how we wanted to build the shelves until we happened on this post: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-easy-low-waste-bookshelves/

It was perfect for us: simple, easily adjusted to fit the space, an extremely tiny amount of wood waste, and we can take it apart to move it if we wish.

Since we don’t have an electric saw, we had the wood cut for us at Lowes, and the employees there couldn’t be nicer.

Supplies for DIY Bookshelves Under the Stairs.

We had to go to several stores to get enough of the 12 inch threaded rods we used as we needed 28 of them, and each store only carried 8-12 of them. We considered cutting longer rods into 12 inch lengths ourselves, but found the metal so hard it was almost impossible to cut.

We bought the acorn caps online as that was the cheapest source.

Supplies:

2×4 White Boards, 4 – 8 feet long, 2 – 6 feet long, and 2 – 5 feet 7 inches long
14 – 1×10 boards, 4 feet long (for shelves)
28 – 1/4×20 Threaded Rods, 12 inches long
56 – 1/4×20 Hex Nuts
56 – 1/4×1 Inch Fender Washers
28 – 1/4×20 Acorn Caps for Front of Shelves
9/32 Wood Drill Bit

1. We marked the holes and drilled them on one of the 8 foot supports, then used it as a guide as to where to drill the holes on the other 7 supports.

2. Next we sanded the boards.

3. Instead of staining the boards, we decided to leave them their natural color, and rubbed on a wax finish

Wax for Boards.

which we made from bees wax and mineral oil.

4. Putting the shelves together was pretty simple. First we put threaded rods where the bottom and next to top shelves would go. Then we added the shelves and tightened the nuts – but not completely tight.

Starting to put DIY bookshelves together.

We put the threaded rod through the holes with a washer against the outside of each of the supports, and then a hex nut next to the washer.

5. We added the rest of the rods and shelves one by one, tightening the nuts enough to hold – but not completely tight.

Then we put the second set of shelves together.

6. After all the shelves were added, we made any adjustments and then tightened the nuts completely.

We love how the shelves look in the alcove, and it was really easy to put together.