Shelf on the stairs
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I bought a house this year and my wife and I are still making it our own. We have way too many books and needed a large area to store them all. We decided the stairs was a great location and artistic. 21 joints later, you see the finished project. I got really good at dadoes.
The posts are cedar 2″x6″. The dadoes are 3/8″ deep and the front has a 1″ deep chunk taken out so that the pine shelf was thicker. I did not want the shelf to break during handling.
The shelves are pine 1″x8″. The hole matched the dimensions of the post. The curves were made with a rough pencil curve. I made one and copied the rest. I used a chisel and hammer to cut out the bulk and a spoke shave to finish the curve.
The stairs have base moulding I had to shape the wood to match. But after I did a couple I could just copy them. The best part was I did not have to measure anything. I started at the bottom and used a level and a knife to mark all the intersections. It guaranteed a perfect fit, dead level shelves and reduced my chance of error.
Two coats of Shellac finished it off. I finished them while they were disassembled (excluding the joints) and knocked them together once complete. They are not glued so that I can take them apart in case I need to get a couch up the stairs or something. I also put a couple brackets at the very top so they don’t fall forward. (They make a great climbing wall for kids.)
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You must be logged in to view attached files.9 November 2013 at 12:08 am #21062Thats awesome Spencer. Very Frank Lloyd Wright. I toured Falling Water a few years back and there is a set of shelves very similar. No photos allowed during the tour but here is a link.
http://www.atticmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dec-hode-bookcases7-435.jpg9 November 2013 at 12:28 am #21067Its a fantastic place. Even more so when you consider that it was built in 1936!
9 November 2013 at 4:26 am #21077That is pretty awesome Spencer. How did you attach the main posts to the wall?
I was able to tour the Falling Water house back in the late 70’s, it was pretty cool!
9 November 2013 at 9:39 am #21082Great job Spencer. Good use of space you may have more book space than books now , you can always buy more books
9 November 2013 at 1:27 pm #21091Looks great, Spencer. I have a passion for old books myself, and so bookshelves have a special place in my heart, for sure. Would love to do something like that here, but we live in a single story ranch. We have a finished basement, but the stairs are too narrow to do something like that.
We have talked about building some built-ins in the living room, however. If/when we do, I hope they turn out as nice. Well done! I think I would be almost as excited about filling the shelves as building them, haha…
Thanks everyone.
Steve,fbjoey,
The main posts are not attached to the wall. They sit on the step. The only direction it could fall is forward so I found a stud in the wall and put a small L bracket on the shelf. I used two total. That is all it needs really. I put the brackets on the top of the shelf because it will be hidden by the stuff. You can see above and below the shelf walking up the stairs.
Chris,
Shivella’s job is to fill the shelves. She wants them alphabetized a certain way and I learned I am no help.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.17 November 2013 at 4:29 pm #21636Thanks for sharing. I don’t have the first set of stairs, but I think I might fill a bedroom wall like that.
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