Sellers Home Bookshelf
Posted 12 July 2021
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Another first for the Sellers Home living room collection. Straight from Paul’s workbench and the garage workshop. Everyone needs a good bookshelf and the joinery in this piece is made very different by the unique combination of twin tenon joints with housing dadoes; then a dovetailing element that will not be obvious but ties the whole together. The piece can be made from any wood and can also be readily changed for different sizing needs and, of course, it can be used for display as well as for books. Enjoy!
Now this I like and I have just the spot for it! I also have some walnut just aching to be used.
It’s time to sharpen my plane irons and chisels, after I work my bees!
Let’s go!
Might there be a floor standing cabinet in the future? I’m starting one but winging it due to not being able to find one that’s not just built on a table saw.
Thanks Paul. I’m looking forward to this. I’ve wanted to convert my living room into essentially a library with wall to wall bookshelves. In some respects, building these bookshelves was one of the earlier drivers. Do you address weight of books and thickness of shelves? I know folks talk about some “sagulator” calculator I can find online to determine thickness of wood needed for distance between the shelves. Mostly want to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Sagulator shelf span calculator
https://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/
I like this. I need several of these…
I did something similar to what you are attempting- a set of wall to wall and floor to ceiling bookcases along one wall of my living room. I used this link for sagulator: http://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/ . I built my shelves out of commodity yellow pine from a big box store because of price. Honestly, this wood was a pain to work with. I let it sit for weeks to normalize and then proceeded to turn 2X12 stock into 1 inch boards. I’d plain one side dead flat and then used a bandsaw to rip the width down to 1 inch. As soon as a board came of the saw you could almost visibly see it start to cup. I ended up having to create 1 1/4 in boards, let them cup then flatten and resaw. In the end, the shelves turned out great. I painted them white which is what I wanted from the start and aside from being hard to dimension to a stable final size, the yellow pine was otherwise great. Overall the shelves span 175″with a window in the middle. I made a window seat under the window. Also made custom molding that was pretty easy to accomplish and turned out nice. Good luck with your project.
It looks stunning in cherry. I just bought a bunch of pine for the other bookcase but i wonder Paul, could this bookcase design be up scaled to fit a whole wall. I’ve always wanted a bookcase like in the old libraries that are, i suppose, built-ins. A lovely design nonetheless and really cherry is such a perfect wood for this project. Best wishes.
As Paul says…’PERFECT”! My cheap mass-produced wood book case didn’t hold up for even 5 years before it racked and showed split wood. I can’t wait to toss that thing and replace it with this one!
Thanks. It will take a while. In episode 1, Paul used a thicker piece in the front. I’m guessing that this was to help stiffen the shelves as well as a visual style he was after. I hadn’t been thinking of that. As always, Paul has so much to teach us.
Every single video I have watched says not watched. This would be a good feature and save a lot of messing if it worked.
I missed something– Why did Paul remove the 3/16 off the fascia board? And why did he do it after it was glued to the top shelf? Why not before it was glued up?
His assembly was built first then scribed to his mark. He cut it down so the sides fit in a housing dado.