DIY Bookshelf Upcycle

While we were cleaning up/organizing our storage rooms in our basement, we found an old shelf that was in pieces. We have been up cycling the shelf and it is now featured in my sister's room. It was a cheap laminate board thing that was wobbly and good for nothing, really. So to strengthen it we used some, you guessed it, pallet wood.

We started out with this. Everything that held together the original shelf was broken, so we drilled new holes and put back together with screws.

First, we measured and cut the pieces to the correct length, and the used a grinder instead of a sander to smooth out the wood. (You can use a sander if you want.) Our grinder is really dull, so it might not work exactly how it did for us.

 The top is covered with pallet wood because it looked bad. Before we screwed it on, though, we pre-drilled to prevent the wood from cracking.We also made a pallet wood shelf I have to show you sometime. We used the same technique.

The back was put on the same way, just pre-drill the pre-measured boards, and then screw on the boards. It really is very simple...

 Do you see how the original shelf and the pallet wood top look? Well we added a piece of wood as a sort of trim because the top edge didn't look right.After that was all done we slipped in the shelves and set it up in Julia's room.

 So, even though we didn't start out with an idea about where to put it, we always find room for new junk at our house. She actually liked it even though she's super picky. We didn't think she'd like it at all. That was a nice surprise.

This is my favorite picture of the shelf. Julia made that ceramic owl in art class and the corner of that canvas in the top left corner was also made by us. I'm going to do a post on all the art that is in her room next time.

This is her room as a whole. The shelf fits perfectly! And it was free...that seems to be a reoccurring word here. But hey isn't it cute! Also, almost everything in this room is from some sort of second hand (yard sales, Craigslist) we found all kinds of beauties. I think having the shelf in the corner makes her room more symmetrical, because she doesn't have two nightstands. So...the "Julia's Room" Post is yet to come!