I built a hardwood bookshelf during 2016 while living in an apartment. I found a good selection of different wood and sizes at Houston Hardwoods, Inc. (https://www.houstonhardwoods.com/) and found a local makerspace TXRX Labs (https://www.txrxlabs.org/woodshop) where I could finish the wood pieces and build the bookshelf. The makerspace required safety training and a woodshop training prior to granting free access to the woodshop. I took these preparatory classes and made my first wood creation, a cutting board.
If I had to choose inspiration for this work, it must have been how my uncle and dad have both built wooden furniture. My dad build a bookshelf out of pine and built more structures outdoors. My uncle has built bed frames and other furniture and has a woodshop in his basement, and my great grandfather built his home on a farm. These family stories inspired me to try my hand at DIY woodworking. I am inspired by our Creator who has instilled many of us with the mind and ability to create using the raw work of His hands. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,…’ ” – Genesis 1:27-28. I may also have been inspired by the many hours my parents watched The New Yankee Workshop on PBS given that we didn’t have cable growing up.
Design
The first step of the project was to decide on a bookshelf design. I found a design very close to what I was seeking, but it was a tall bookshelf with shorter, shallower shelf heights than I needed. I adopted the general design and adapted the dimensions and some of the style to fit my bookshelf. Then I sketched the wood dimensions and counts I would need prior to visiting the lumber shop.
Wood Selection and Preparation
Once I had the dimensions and count of wood pieces, the next decision is the type of wood to buy. I decided early to use a hardwood instead of pine since I wanted a wood with fine grains, few knots, and durability. I landed on maple since I liked the clean appearance and since it was one of the woods recommended by the lumber shop.
Since I needed two 13 inch wide boards for deep shelves, the selection of boards was slim. I also could not find a board wide enough for the top width of 16 inches. Many boards also had some amount of warping, and I had to wait for a second round of lumber to arrive to get all boards I needed. The shop needed to mill some rough lumber pieces to a grade less than S4S. Since I planned to plane the pieces in the makerspace, I did not need the lumber shop to finish all pieces to S4S. After using a 24″ planer and 8″ jointer to finish the shelves, I saw that the surface was still too rough. Since the makerspace did not have a working drum sander, I took these to the the lumber shop where they sanded the top and shelf pieces to produce smooth surfaces.
I finished the remaining pieces of wood using the 24″ planar to smooth surfaces and 8″ jointer to make right edges. It is important to plane in the direction of the grains and angle the wood downward to avoid tear-outs.1 The makerspace blades weren’t as sharp as ideal due to less frequent maintenance than needed.
One lesson I learned on this project is that wood can warp significantly when you take it home from the lumber shop. I stored the wood inside my apartment, and the wood subsequently dried compared to the higher humidity inside the lumber shop warehouse which is not air conditioned. The wide shelf and top boards warped before I started construction. A good solution found is to place damp towels on the boards and followed by weights on top of the boards. Leaving the boards under weight for a few days made them flat again.
Building the Frame
I began building a frame for each side of the bookshelf. Each frame consists of two legs, a top and bottom board, and the side board. I attached all of these with a Kreg pocket hole jig. I recommend starting with a practice board before drilling a pocket hole in the final wood piece. I drilled pocked holes from the inside of the side board along all four edges to attach the legs and top and bottom boards to the side board. It is important to set the angle to ensure the holes break through the edge of the side board and not the opposite side.
The assembled side frames turned out well. I added a chamfer to the legs for added style.
Next I attached the top two rails to attach the side frames.
Building the Shelves
I built the shelves in the same manner as the side frames using pocket holes to attach a front and back edge. For all shelves besides the bottom shelf, the design calls for rotating the front edge downward to have the middle shelves inset from the bottom shelf.
I filled the pocket holes with a water based wood filler.
Building the Top
I could not find a wood piece wide enough for the top, but I was able to use a similar method as making the cutting board. I glued together six 3″ wide boards to form the top. Once the glue had dried, I also brought this to the lumber shop to finish with the drum sander, and I used the router table to cut chamfers along the edges of the top as a design feature. The chamfers were not part of the original design, but I saw they provided added character to otherwise square pieces.
Finishing the Back
I wanted a unique look for the back of the bookshelf. The back is often an area neglected on store bookshelves where they may have a cardboard composite backing, but I wanted something better given the time invested thus far. I found that bead board provided a nice style while still being cheaper and lighter than the rest of the bookshelf.
Staining the Bookshelf
I found staining the bookshelf one of the surprisingly harder steps. Since I had chosen maple wood and sanded with a 220 grit to remove hairs prior to staining, the stain did not penetrate well. Maple wood has much finer grains than oak or especially pine, and I would use either a very light or dark stain if I ever work with maple again. Instead of absorbing, the stain tends to smear. The stain will also dry quickly and becomes darker with each coat. Thus I had to be careful to stain all wood that was nearby at corners to prevent lines from multiple staining rounds. The bookshelf turned out well. In retrospect I would have chosen a cherry wood to produce a similar finished color.
