HOW TO: Kids DIY Book Shelf!
Creating a book storage solution for your child’s room is easy with this kids DIY book shelf! I made three for maximum storage, but feel free to adjust to fit your child’s space and needs. Let’s dive into the tutorial!
One of my favorite things to do is add special DIY touches to our kids bedrooms. In my sons room I made a feature wall out of craft paint a triangle stencil I made using the back of a notepad, followed simple plans to build him a wooden bed and my most recent project was a set of kids DIY book shelves. He can use them to display books and other items that are special to him as he grows.
I wanted to share a simple DIY that can be completed in one day or a couple of afternoons with little or no power tools. My first ever DIY project was a small shiplap wall in our Powder Room. I had a home improvement store cut a sheet of underlayment into planks the size I needed and used a hammer and over 140 nails to install the shiplap by hand. Don’t feel like you need a bunch of expensive tools for every project!
What you will need for this kids book shelf project:
- 1 x 6 pine boards (primed if you want to skip this step later)
- 1/4″ x 3/4″ Unfinished Pine Wood Screen Trim
- Paint (I used a pint of the cheapest black paint I could find, Krylon brand)
- Stain (I used Special Walnut by Minwax)
- Wood Glue
Optional Tools:
- Mitre Saw (or have a home improvement store cut your wood to the lengths you need)
- Nail Gun (or use wood glue/clamps or finishing nails/hammer)
Grab Measurements
These measurements may be different depending on your space. I wanted three shelves and each to be a total of 29″ long.
I cut 6 pieces of my 1 x 6 to 27.5″. These will be the bottoms and backs of the shelves.
I also cut 6 pieces of my 1 x 6 to 6.5″. These will be the ends of each shelf.
Finally I cut 3 pieces of my 1/4″ x 3/4″ trim to 31″. These will span the length of the entire shelf to keep items from falling off.
Let’s Get Started on Your Kids DIY Book Shelf!
After cutting all of my wood and a light sanding to knock off any rough edges, I painted 2 coats of black paint on all 12 of my primed 1 x 6 pieces. Then stained all 3 of my trim pieces.
Time To Assemble
We’ve spent a couple hours waiting for paint to dry and we are already on to assembly of our shelves!
Stand up a back piece behind a bottom piece and secure them together using wood glue and nails.
Then secure each end piece on the same way making sure all edges are flush and square.
At this point you can choose to attach your stained trim piece to the front of the kids DIY book shelf by nailing each end of the trim to the front of each end piece about halfway up the front of the shelf. I chose to hang my shelves on the wall first so I could fit my drill easily and screw my shelves to the wall studs in my sons room. You could also choose to attach hanging hardware to the back of your shelves and hang them that way.
Tip: Make sure to secure your shelves to studs or use heavy duty anchors so that your shelves are safe when they are holding the weight of your items. Use a level to keep your kids DIY book shelf straight while hanging.
I hope that this easy project tutorial gives you the push you need to get started on your kids DIY book shelf! Have fun with paint or stain and consider sharing your finished project with me on social media. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok @grayrosehome.
For more awesome tutorials from Our Faux Farmhouse contributors, check out these recent posts:
