Hey Everyone!! Welcome to my first official blog post! - Still weird to me!
I have gotten a couple questions on my crate bookshelf that I am about to show you so I thought I would feature it on a post!! I got this vision a couple weeks ago and just been building it out in my head! I couldn't really find any inspiration online and anything close to the idea I had was a crate bookshelf on the ground! At first I had plan to build our own little cube's and have them solid and paint them a super fun color - think IKEA! However, we have so many projects on our plate I knew it would be put on the back burner. I previously was keeping our Usborne Books on a super small shelf in my bedroom closet, since I use them for work too I try (keyword TRY) to keep my kids from scattering them and reading them like scavengers. I knew I couldn't take that for too long so I thought crates in place of cubes would be a HUGE time saver and fairly inexpensive. Until I went to the craft store and realized so many DIY projects involving crates have made the cost sky rocket!! I put an over dramatic post on Facebook about it and more or less an ISO post! BOOM! Someone came through selling 7 crates for $25! JACKPOT! It sealed the deal at that point. SO finally, here is my $25 wall unit!
I started by laying out my design on the floor! I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted it to look like but I knew I would probably switch some things around. I wanted some of the shelves vertical for my taller books but wanted some horizontal so I could fit more in it!
I did this pre bedtime and it was slightly chaotic! Then I even tried to add books for a visual and that only added to the chaos! I ditched the idea and went to bed! The End. Kidding :) But before bed I decided to try and paint a few of them! I really should of sanded them first to get some of the roughness out but I was pretty eager to get this done! And my husband said they are supposed to look rustic. I had some left over ceiling paint I decided to use because I am ALL about saving money where I can! Painting with a brush really didn't go over so well. It was messy, wasteful, and streaky! The next morning I decided to screw them in to two sets so I didn't have to paint areas that wouldn't show. I decided to use my Critter Spray gun instead! I LOVE this spray gun for small job or places where a conventional large gun can't get - like the crowded corners of a wood crate! You just have to remember to thin your paint a little bit! I usually do a couple tablespoons to 2/3 jar of paint. It is a pretty beginner friendly spray gun that attaches to an air compressor! You just have to wipe off the spray tip pretty frequently. You can find it on Amazon (click the image)! Not flawless but SO much easier!
I had a section of 3 crates screwed together and a section of 4! Y'all these aren't light so I was slightly worried about adding tons of books!
This part is for sure a two person job! After deciding where I wanted them roughly we used a stud finder so we knew where we would need anchor and where we wouldn't. We marked with tape where the stud was and where we knew it would be below the crates. My hubby held them up and I went to town drilling! We put two screws minimum in each of the 7 crates and tried to stick to the studs only. We did put a few in the drywall with anchors but only as additional support to those in the studs. This is SUPER heavy so you want it to be in as many studs as you can get! We also made sure not to put all the screws in only one of the slats because we didn't want the full crate just ripping off that one slat. This was only a problem with the vertical crates and that is when we added the drywall anchors.
* TIP* To add the anchors you must drill all your holes first. Once we did that my husband lowered that section of crates, put the anchors in the drywall, then we matched the holes back up. We didn't need to add any anchors if we were screwing into the stud!
After that it was just decoration! Overall pretty quick and easy!
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