Hello! Today I am excited to be teaming up with Emily from The Benson Street in her awesome Back to School Series. Yay! All month long we will be sharing some fun back to school ideas with all of you! Just don’t let my kiddos know! ha! The words “back to school” are not something they want to hear just yet. Summer is just too much fun. ;)
I have one kiddo still at home & in preschool. He has just figured out how to write his name, & he loves letters & reading. So I decided to make this easy DIY Book Ledge Reading Nook for his room. It’s a great spot to display his books, & it encourages us to read more. I also added a fun ABC vinyl decal above it. We love picking out the letters in our name. :) I think the more kiddos are read to & exposed to letters the better they’ll do in school. So to see how I made these book ledges with baseboards (yes, baseboards!) keep reading! :)
As most of you know we have been working on an addition to our house over the past year. We just passed final inspection. Whew! ;) Now I’ve been working on the fun part decorating! :) It might take me a little while before I share it all on the blog. Buuuut it’s a coming! I promise. ;) Before the fun part was the not so fun parts. I spent hours & hours painting baseboard & trim. I still need to do one more coat on the crown molding! Anyways, as I was painting the trim I had the thought to use the baseboard trim to make book ledges. Annnnd it worked! :) Let me show you how.
You’ll need a few things to get started. :)
Supplies:
2 styles of baseboards (see pictures below) I used 8 feet of each kind of baseboard.
paintable white caulk
wood glue
trim paint & paint brush
painters tape
table saw
nail gun & nails
stud finder
If you notice the trim on the left has two deep grooves. These grooves are the perfect size for kid sized books. (We found this trim at Lowes. I’m sure you can find it other places, too.) So for each shelf I used one 4 foot piece of this baseboard cut to have a straight edge. The trim that goes underneath your shelf can be any kind of baseboard trim. I just used some trim that matched our existing baseboards. For each shelf you’ll need one 4 foot piece of this. The ends are cut to a 45 degree angle. Since I was making 2 shelves we had two 4 feet pieces of each kind of baseboard. Below is a close up of the fancier baseboard trim so you see how it it looks from the side.
Using a stud finder mark your wall studs with a pencil. Then using a nail gun we nailed the bottom baseboard piece flush to the wall. You could use a level to make sure it’s perfectly straight. We just eyeballed it. ;) Make sure you get some of the nails into a stud, so your shelves are sturdy. Put a thin strip of wood glue along the top of your baseboard. Then sit your other piece of baseboard trim right on top. The thicker edge against the wall. Then using the nail gun we nailed straight down into the bottom piece of baseboard. Now you have a shelf.
After you wood glue has dried, & your shelves are up, it’s time to caulk. Caulking is one of the new skills I picked up during our room addition! I’ve been caulking everything lately! ha! It makes a huge difference & hides any little gaps! So using the caulk gun just run some caulk along all the edges of your shelves & where the two pieces of wood meet. To smooth out my caulk I just use a wet rag, wet my finger & run it along all the edges after I’ve caulked. This takes up the excess caulk & leaves a smooth surface. Wipe off any extra caulk that might get on the wall, and you are good to go. :)
Make sure you use paintable caulk because after you are done & the caulk has dried it will be time to paint. Give your book ledges one or two coats of paint. Let dry. Now you are ready to add your books. :)
I love, love how these turned out! Annnnd best of all this project didn’t cost me a thing! Yay! I just used the extra trim pieces that we already had. Yay! Now that’s awesome. :) If you do have to buy trim the fancier trim was about $25 dollars for a 12 foot pieces & the other trim was much cheaper. So this is definitely an affordable project to tackle. :)
Check out all of the Back to School tutorials below. :)
Have you started on any back to school projects?
Are you ready for school to start? I’d love to hear! :)
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This post was created for Ginger Snap Crafts by Ginger Bowie.
