How to Build a Library Bookshelf--WITH DESK!

[Music] hey guys it's shira from one shop diaries and i'm so excited to show you my new desk area i have actually edited my last two videos sitting right there in that chair and it's been glorious also how adorable is it that i framed a black and white photo of lucy to go right there in the middle while this project is big it was built in smaller sections that are actually really easy to put together so i'm really excited to share this project with you and hope you enjoy it if you're ready to get building let's go i'm sharing the printable plans for this project linked in the description below along with a tools and materials list plus a written tutorial on my website before we head to the shop i wanted to note that this project was built in multiple sections to make it easier to build set up and install i always feel like large projects like this are just easier to follow if taken on in smaller sections versus all at once so i'll show how i built the tall outside bookshelves first then the desk cabinets and countertop and finally the top middle section then at the end once it's all in place i'll share about the crown molding the lights and the ladder alright so to kick things off like most of my projects i started by cutting down my plywood sheets into smaller more manageable pieces besides the parts for the face frames i built this entire project using maple plywood i provided a cut diagram of the pieces and the plans linked below but i use my kreg rip cut and circular saw to rip two 13 and a half inch strips off a few sheets and set the leftover piece aside i built the shelves using these 13 and a half inch wide strips and the desk section using the leftovers i have eight foot ceilings in my house and they measured right at 96 and a quarter inches tall from the floor to the ceiling now i wanted these tall bookshelves to be a single piece but i couldn't make them a full 96 inches or they'd scrape the ceiling when i tried to put them in place so i actually trimmed my bookshelf side panels to 94 inches long and this gave me two inches of wiggle room to be able to tilt the shelves upright once they're inside the room then i can go back later and cover that gap with crown molding so i cut two 94 inch long sides and three 30 inch long shelf panels for each bookshelf i used my crag pocket hole jig to drill pocket holes into the ends of each shelf panel then assembled using pocket hole screws if you want to learn more about how to set up and use a pocket hole jig i've linked a detailed guide in the description that you can check out since i was adding a face frame to the front of these shelves i didn't bother edge banding these plywood edges now all the dimensions here can be found on the plans but do notice that i face the pocket holes in the middle shelf toward the top i didn't want to see the holes from the bottom and since the shelves are so tall unless you climb on the ladder you'll never see those pocket holes at the top shelf while i had the shelf in my workbench i went ahead and used my shelf pin jig to drill shelf pin holes in the bottom section of the cabinet i did this on both sides so that i can use shelf pins to add adjustable shelves later once the main body of the shelves were assembled i moved them to the floor and started working on the face frames now let's talk about the face frames for a second i use 1 by 6's at the top and bottom one by threes on one side and the middle piece here but for the side of the shelf that will face the inside of this entire project i ripped a one by three in half to give me a one and a quarter inch wide strip the reason i ripped this in half is that once i add the middle shelf section i'll add another one and a quarter inch wide piece on the sides so together they will make a whole 1x3 width this is just a visual thing and i wanted it to look balanced and like one unit even though i'm building them separate so i cut all my pieces for the face frame to fit perfectly over the front of the shelf cabinets then assembled it using wood glue and pocket hole screws [Music] again all of the dimensions for this and all the parts of this project can be found in the plans linked below i glued and finished nailed the face frame on the front making sure to keep the sides and the bottom flush then i puttied all the seams and the nail holes in the meantime i realized that i never installed any piece to the shelf that would allow me to secure it to the wall once it's installed so i cut some plywood scraps and attached them at the top here using pocket holes and screws i'll come back and add shelves to these cabinets later but at this point once it had a final sanding these shelves were finished and i moved on to the next part of the build the desk cabinets remember those leftover plywood strips from earlier after i cut the shelf pieces off i grabbed two of those and ripped them down to 19 inches wide to make the desk cabinets i used my craig accucut and circular saw to cut these strips into two sides and a bottom panel again all the dimensions are in the plans and if you've seen my cabinet building video this part is basically that i cut three plywood strips from some scraps for the top supports and i cut one strip for the bottom to use as the toe kick because these sections will not have a face frame i did edge band the front edges of the sides bottom and top support this just hides the plies and makes it look a little cleaner then i assembled the cabinets using pocket holes and screws i was adding two deep drawers in each of these cabinets to store my craft supplies and office stuff so i added 16 inch door slides into the sides of each cabinet i installed these three quarter inch inset from the front edge because i will be adding inset drawer fronts later i have a detailed guide for installing drawer slides linked below if you want more details on that now it was freezing outside at this point so i knew it would take glue forever to dry so before actually building the drawer boxes i went ahead and worked on the countertop so the glue could dry while i built the drawers i used another one of these leftover plywood strips for the desktop and ripped it to 20 inches wide but i left it a full eight foot long i wanted my countertop to be thicker than just one layer of three-quarter inch plywood but i didn't want to bother with gluing up a panel of solid wood or waste a bunch of plywood and making a full double layer so instead i glued some scrap pieces along the edges and a couple in the middle where the insides of the cabinets would rest while the glue dried i started working on the drawer boxes now if you've seen many of my videos this is a familiar process i ripped two of the leftover plywood strips in half to use as the drawer boxes and cut these strips to length for the sides of each box i set up the table saw to cut a quarter inch dados and the drawer box sides to insert the quarter inch plywood bottom panel now i do have a dado blade but unless i'm making a ton of drawers at once i usually don't swap it out i just run them through once adjust the fence a little and then run them through again until i get a quarter inch wide dado so no just in case you wondered you don't have to have a dado blade to cut dados i edubented the tops of each drawer box just because i like the cleaner look that's totally optional and then i assembled the boxes using pocket holes and screws i cut quarter inch plywood bottom panels to slide into the dados once the boxes were together i installed them onto the slides in the cabinets i have a detailed guide for how to build and install drawer boxes that i will link below [Music] then i cut three quarter inch plywood drawer fronts edge banded them and installed those onto each door with screws from the inside [Music] now that the drawers were in i moved back to finish up the countertop to cover up the edges and make this look a lot cleaner and more seamless i used one and a half inch iron on edge bending on the front and the sides there's no need to put it on the back since the back will be against the wall [Music] then i brought the tall shelves and the desk pieces inside to start installing before we discuss installation i wanted to take a moment to share about our video sponsor craig academy if you've followed me for very long you know that i love craig tools from the cutting guides to the shelf pin jig to the concealed hinge jig and the pocket hole jig they just make building easier but besides their tools craig is also offering something else that is really awesome that i'm grateful to have been a part of craig tool is offering a new online learning platform called craig academy where they're sharing step-by-step project videos a library of skills videos teaching you how to plan out your projects pick your lumber measure mark and cut your pieces they also have tips on assembly finishing help and a ton more if you're looking for a great resource to get you or someone you know started on their woodworking journey check out craig academy in the link below and get building okay now let's get back to this build so i wanted to get the desk installed first and then attach the bookshelves around it i took the drawers out of these to make them easier to carry inside i just screwed this cabinet into a wall stud through that back support piece and then i did the same with that cabinet then i placed the countertop on top and screwed the countertop in place through these top supports of each cabinet fyi before installing the top make sure to add painters tape or something in place to be able to pull the drawers open later note that in order for this to go flush against the wall you'll either need to remove and replace the baseboard or cut out the sections of the baseboards for these pieces to fit i actually plan to replace all the baseboards eventually around the entire house so i just removed what was here and replaced it with 1x6 boards after everything was in place now i didn't install the tall shelves yet because i'm going to come back and paint them first for now i went back to the shop to finish up the middle shelf section i built the middle the same depth as the outside shelves so i used some more of those three and a half inch wide plywood strips to cut my pieces i assembled two smaller sides using pocket holes and screws and drilled shelf pin holes into them to add adjustable shelves later i measured where the hole started on the tall cabinets and tried to drill these out at the same locations just so that i could line up my shelves later when they're installed if i wanted then i placed these sections on the ground and cut two pieces to go between them it was very important here to make sure that the overall width of this entire shelf was exactly the same width as the desk countertop which was eight feet [Music] i installed these middle pieces using pocket holes and screws making sure to keep the shelves even and square [Music] then just like with the tall bookshelves i assembled a face frame now the outside pieces of the face frame will be one and a quarter inches wide just like i discussed previously the top pieces will be one by sixes and the middle pieces will all be 1 by 3s i assembled the two outside face frames first using wood glue and pocket holes and screws then i cut the middle pieces to fit to make sure that the overall width of this face frame was eight foot this was a really big face frame so i assembled this on the ground making sure to keep the outside pieces as the thinner one and a quarter inch wide strips then i glued and nailed this face frame on top making sure to keep all the vertical pieces square i put it over the nail holes and the seams sanded and then carried it in and placed it on the desk to get ready for paint i set the tall shelves and middle shelf up on some scrap blocks and primed and painted the outsides and face frames white of course you can finish this however you want i came back after paint and applied a clear coat poly to the desk section [Music] after the finish was dry i moved the tall shelves next to the desk cabinets removed the drawers and then screwed them together then i screwed the middle section to the tall shelf as well i used a few screws through the underside of the countertop to secure the vertical pieces of the middle shelf then secured the tall shelves into the wall studs at the top basically i just made sure that everything was screwed together and screwed to the wall one way or another you'll notice that i puttied over the seams between the middle and outside shelves i'll come back and discuss that in a minute once everything was secured in place i added crown molding along the top now i share some tips on cutting crown molding in my window trim video if you want more details but because this was so long i did have to piece it together on the front section i cut to fit and nailed the crown in place then puttied sanded and painted over each seam and nail hole so where i butted the tall bookshelf up to the bookshelves that i've set on top of my desk there was a seam here and when i put them together it wasn't a really tight seam so i actually puttied over this and tried to stand it smooth and then painted over it and it looks okay but it's a pet peeve of mine that i can still kind of see where the seam is so what i'm gonna do is i'm just gonna take some half round molding and cover up that seam it'll add a little bit of decorative detail to the bookshelf and also prevent me from having to look at a eventual crack that develops up this seam i just didn't like how these seams came together so i added this half round molding between them you could use a thin piece of lattice trim something with flutes or maybe your putty will look way better than mine and you can just leave it as is there's a lot of options here once the half round was added i primed and painted it then screwed these lights in place i just used some wood screws from the shop as the hardware that came with these light fixtures wouldn't work for installing them here if you're interested i'll link the lights that i used here below these actually plug in and i'll discuss how i dealt with the chords later for now let's move on to the exciting task of adding the ladder [Music] the rolling ladder hardware was a lot more expensive than barn door hardware the biggest difference that i could tell looking at them online was that the ladder hardware had these bent at an angle for the ladder to like bend at an angle anyway i just wanted to warn you here that this is sliding barn door hardware and not actually rolling ladder hardware so this may not be your typical way of doing this but we're gonna see i think it'll work i really don't expect that it won't work but it might i don't know we'll see i honestly don't know why rolling ladder hardware is so pricey but i ended up giving sliding door hardware a try for this i've made my own rolling door hardware several times before but this time i ended up just buying a kit online to save me the trouble my overall project width was about 13 feet so i bought a 12 foot rail and followed the included instructions to install it the screws that came with this to mount these on they're rather long and i could have gone to the store and gotten like shorter ones but either way i was just gonna go ahead and use the screws that came with the hardware kit and since they are so long they would definitely if i just drilled them through the center here they would definitely stick out i'm just going to mount this 3 8 inch down from the top so that it does go through the center of the plywood shelves so the screw gets secured into those shelves please ignore the fact that i was super impatient and already added the shelves and all of my stuff here before i was completely finished with all the details i was just really excited to see it all come together okay so the rail this was a little different than your typical rolling door installation but pretty self-explanatory this rail came in two six-foot sections that attached together at the center i pre-drilled holes spaced out every 16 inches to correspond with the holes in the rails so that they would drive into the plywood shelf behind the face frame now this meant that the holes were pretty close to the top edge of the face frame so i was very careful drilling and driving here [Music] i installed the rail onto the shelf through these holes then i built the ladder i made this letter from 1x4 oak boards and honestly i think pine would have worked fine for me but i figured oak would hold a little bit more weight and it did also look a little bit nicer so that's what i used [Music] i cut the ends of the ladder sides with a 10 degree miter so that it would lean then i used a square to draw a line perpendicular to the top edge about two inches from the front i cut along this line with a circular saw and this flat area is where i will mount the rollers onto when i install it i did this for both pieces at the top then just screwed the rungs between them i used a scrap piece of plywood to evenly space all the rungs out and keep them parallel to the 10 degree angle at the bottom now i know that i could have made this stronger by cutting dados for the rungs to slide into but this ladder in my case is mainly for decoration and although it does function i'll only be using the bottom rung since the ceiling isn't that high so i just use screws it's more than enough for my needs so the hardware that came to mount these was originally obviously for a door since this is rolling door hardware so they were bolts i had to use screws for this application so i just grabbed um some two inch screws and some washers so that it will stop at the hole and not go all the way through the hole once the ladder was together i brought it inside with the rollers now this kit comes with four rollers for double doors but you only need two for this so i saved my extra two for later and stay tuned for what i use those for anyway i placed the rollers on the reel and set my ladder up to them i made sure that the ladder feet were flat on the ground and that the roller bars were straight up and down then clamped it into position and screwed these in from the back side then i repeated for the second roller i'm sure there's a way to be more technical than that but this worked fine and involved no measuring now i didn't add any wheels to the bottom of the ladder because the wheels that i found online looked really cheap but were actually pretty expensive so i just didn't bother adding any this ladder will roll fine just by scooting it or just barely lifting it out rolling it where you want it and then setting it back down if you wanted you could add some little felt pads to the bottom which might help it scoot easier without worrying about scratching the floor now i promised that i would come back and talk about the lights so for the lights that i added up here i literally just screwed the light fixtures into this top board right here and the cords came out of the bottom and they plug in and the cable runs up here to a sticky clip and then through a hole that i drilled in the plywood right behind this and it runs up along the back side of this through another hole that i drove right here into this middle section where i added an extension cord you can see it right up there they're plugged together and clipped sticky clipped to the back side of this board right here and that runs through a hole that i drilled down the back side of this trim piece right here and then down underneath this cabinet through a hole there to the outlets and the final details are the baseboards and the shelves i cut strips of 12 inch wide plywood to use as the shelves and just place them where i wanted using shelf pins in each cabinet the dimensions are in the plans but as a basic rule of thumb when i cut adjustable shelves to install on shelf pins i usually measure the width of the opening and subtract about a quarter of an inch to give some wiggle room to be able to remove and move them around and for the baseboards i just cut to fit painted and nailed some 1x6 boards where i removed the original baseboard i'll eventually replace all the baseboards in this entire room so that they'll match but for now i called this project complete and i'm ready to get to work right here at my new desk i'm so glad that i finally have a space to display my silver youtube play button keep my books handy store away my cameras and equipment and have a dedicated space to actually work at i really hope you guys enjoyed the build and if you want more details be sure to check out the plans information and materials list in the description below thanks so much for watching friends and until next time happy building [Music]

Channel: Shara Woodshop Diaries

Views: 167,739

Keywords: how to build a bookshelf, how to build a bookshelf out of wood, diy library wall, diy library wall bookcase, built in bookshelves with desk plans, built in bookshelf wall, library shelf design, bookshelf with ladder plans, built in desk plans, diy built in desk and shelves, how to make a rolling ladder, how to make a bookshelf wall, home library build, build home library bookshelves, build home library desk, DIY home library desk, diy home library plans, library bookshelf

Id: Evt6ad9I060

Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 22 2022