So happy with how this project turned out
I wanted to build a bookshelf, so I came up with this idea to go ahead and glue up some
sides atop to the bookshelf, then create these tubes on the inside and a couple of shelves
to connect the tubes to the opposite side of the bookshelf. Which you're going to see what I'm talking about in a second here, but I used three 2x10x8
foot pine boards for this project, and that's all the wood you're going to go ahead and need
And the first thing I'm going to do is go ahead and cut the dimensions for the sides and the top
Now, I just went ahead and cut one of the 8 foot boards in half for the sides, so they're
48 inches tall each. And then for the top, I believe I went in with a 30 inch piece, so I did a top and bottom
cut at 30 inches. You might also realize that the miter saw I'm using does not go ahead and cut through
the entire width of this board, so I had to cut down, flip it over, trace the line across
and then continue to cut. So I'm going ahead and continuing cutting the top and sides until we have this essential
base structure for our cabinet here. This is what it's going to look like, and I'm going in with some 2.5 inch long screws
which don't even require you to pre-drill any holes or anything like that. I absolutely love these, they're the best
I'm going in and I'm drilling three of them into each side of our piece of wood
Now, I opted to go in with just the cheapest pine boards that they have at Home Depot
and that's because I'm painting this project, so I don't really care how the wood is going
to look in the end. So this is the base structure of our piece. Now, next what I'm going to do is go ahead and create the keys
We're going to cut four 13 inch pieces and two 10 inch pieces, and they'll be going together
like this diagram here. So the 13 inch pieces are going to be on top and bottom, and the 10 inch is going to be
on the side there. So I'm just screwing them together, going through our 13 inch section into the side
of the 10, and we are basically creating a three-sided cube as shown here
You're going to want to actually create two of these, because one's going to go in the top left corner as shown here, and then one's going to go in the bottom left hand corner
And as you can see, the sides are going to complete the cube. So once they're inside, you're going to go ahead and screw them in
I used about three screws per side, so I'm going in here and just screwing those together
as shown here. I'm flipping it up because it's so much easier to add the screws when it's flipped upward
like this, so I'm just adding in the ones on the back side. And this is what it's going to look like once your key cubes are installed, but we do want
to add a little bit more support in there, so I'm measuring out the distance from the
cube to the opposite side of the bookshelf. This happens to be 17 inches for both sections, so I cut out a 17 inch piece of wood and I'm
screwing that in from the outside in, and also on the inside of the cube
I'm just going to be adding that shelf there. This just adds a lot of visual interest to the piece, and I love how geometric it ended
up turning out in the end. So this is what it looks like. You can totally keep it wood if you like that look, or stain it, but I wanted to go in and
do a little bit of wood filler. So I'm just wood filling every single screw hole
This is why I suggest dropping the screws quite low into the wood, or at least where
you know once you go in and add the wood filler that it's going to be fully covered when you
go back to stand it. So I'm just going to go ahead and let that wood filler dry for about an hour, and then
I'm going back in with a 200 grit sandpaper and sanding away any excess. This is going to create a nice smooth finish, and almost make it appear as if no screws
were even used in the process of creating this piece. So just going through, sanding everything away, and then we're using some of the bare
marcy paint. This is from Home Depot as well. I'm literally using a color called black, and I'm going to go through and paint the
entire shelf with one coat of this paint, because it is so high quality
I literally used one coat, you guys, and it covered perfectly. I also love how the cheaper pine boards from Home Depot show through the texture
I love that. When you paint over the top of it, I think it adds a nice bit of dimension
So I'm going through and painting the entire shelf now. Allow that to dry, and love the fact that you only spent $45 on this project