New Bookshelf for a Kid’s Room
Our son turned 3 in January and so one of the first projects I wanted to do this year was turn his nursery into a big kid room. First, we gave away his crib and I made him a twin bed, reusing wood from a previous bed that my dad made years ago and painting it, as well as making an upholstered headboard out of his crib sheets. See here for that DIY project. The second DIY project was to change his small bookshelf for a tall, slim bookshelf to accommodate a growing collection of books.
We sold his original Crate & Kids bookshelf and making the new one was simple, but I wanted to do something a little special.
Simple DIY
First, I got a simple shelving track and bracket system from Home Depot. I happened to pick up the Rubbermaid brand, but for this type of shelf, it doesn’t matter. See here and here for the shelving system.
I had a lot of old wood from my dad that happened to be perfect sizes for this shallow bookshelf so I didn’t need to purchase any shelves. I measured and tested out different spacing on one piece of wood of where the bracket should be screwed in. Once I found a perfect spot to screw in the shelves, I used that shelf as the template to screw in all the others, testing out each shelf as I went.
Getting Creative
Because the shelving unit is tall without any ends, I wanted to add bookends but was worried they would fall and hit him in the head. So I went to Michael’s and bought wood letters of his name to screw into the ends of the shelves on the outward facing side.
Lastly, I bought craft paint in several colors from Target and painted the letter and sides of the shelf to make it all pop and add more bright and happy color to an already colorful room.
The Reveal
And there it is, his new bookshelf that will grow with him and now this kid’s room glow up is complete. What do you think? Would you try a similar DIY project?
