The bookcase is finished! Don't look too closely or you may question my use of the term "finished"... But it looks complete enough and is fully functional so I'm done!
Note to self: Do NOT let the guy who made the wrong cuts pick out new pieces for you. He has shown his incompetence in cutting and it may carry over to his 1x4 choosing - and you might get several pieces of curvy, crooked, junk wood. Which you cannot make straight by trying to nail the heck out of it. Please don't look at the side of my bookcase.
That unstained piece there? Was supposed to be the bottom shelf. You can'tsee the other side, but it is stained - and facing this way, would be against
the floor. Had to pull that apart and redo it.
I did like making this, though! I learned several things (see above), including a lot about staining, drilling, and following your plans! I had to make a few adjustments due to my own forgetfulness. I forgot to attach two pieces in the right order, and unless I was going to try to pull them back out I had to just go with it. I didn't realize until later that that meant I had to alter several other pieces also, but hey - it holds books.
Staining the wood. I used Minwax gel stain in Cherrywood. This waspine, so I used the pre-stain conditioner, too, which worked well.
I also made some fabric baskets to hold our bits of stuff that didn't have a home. It added some nice color to our beige rental. The blue and green vases I got from Cost Plus when they were giving away gift cards for helping review their website - they've been boxed up for over a year, waiting for a place to belong. The little owl was something my Dad brought me from a trip to Italy, and it sat on my desk in college. His beak is broken, but I think it just gives him character. :) I made sure the bottom shelf could hold binders, since we have several and they're kind of hard to store. It was really nice to be able to customize everything.
I realized we have way too many books for one bookcase, though. I actually suspected that already, since this is what we had in our old apartment:
Two bookcases. But this being my first building project, my hubby thought one would be more practical than two. I'm sure one got completed much more quickly than two, and even that took plennnnty of time. So, it turns out he was right (shhhh...).
Also - this bookcase was practically free because we bought it with a gift card we got with our credit card rewards. Score! Can't wait to try something else from Knock-Off Wood. I'm thinking some nightstands are in order... Perhaps something like this?
One item checked off the list, another one added.
