I have been working on a really special project for my wife. She is an avid reader and we recently converted our oldest daughters old room to a library. She has been looking for “Library” themed accent pieces and this is what I surprised her with.
The project is actually pretty easy and only requires a few tools. For this project I used 3 common boards; 2x8x8, 2x10x8 and 1/2 of a 2x12x8. For tools
To complete this project I used the following common tools:
- Circular Saw – Cutting the standard boards to size
- Bora 48″ straight edge- One of my favorite tools. Makes cutting perfectly straight lines a breeze.
- Kobalt drill – assembling the books
- Kobalt trim router – Recessing the page portion of the books
- Kobalt Palm Sander – Rounding the spine of the book, final sanding
- Disposable foam paint brush – applying stain and poly.
First step is to cut the boards to size. Don’t worry about being exact on your measurements. Once the piece is assembled, minor variances will never be noticed. Just make sure your cuts are straight and square.
After finishing cutting to them to size, I gave everything a quick sanding to smooth out the pieces.
My next step was to create the “page” portion of the books. I used my Kobalt trim router and Bosch 3/8″ Carbide tipped straight router bit. A challenge presented itself, how to hold the books without creating any dents from clamps. Here is what I cobbled together from some scrap.
This simple plywood jig was built with an 1-1/2″ space to allow the book to slide in snug. The small clamp is then used to squeeze the plywood clamping the book with no damage.
Here is my finished stack of books after carving out the pages. The pages are at an 1/8″ depth to give a pronounced lip.
The next step was a substantial amount of sanding. I spent about 5 hours sanding the books. For the page area I meticulously hand sanded each one. If you had a Dremel with a drum sander, this part could be achieved much quicker. I opted to use as few tools as I could to show what can be achieved.
Once everything was sanded and ready to assemble, I stacked the books until I found a desirable layout. My goal was to have the look of haphazardly stacked books.
Once I decided on a layout, I began assembling the table. I flipped the top book over face down to serve as the table top. I pulled the next book from the stack and flipped it over on top of the first one with a little wood glue between them. I used 3ea 2-1/2″ wood screws to assemble them. I continued this process to assemble the table upside down. Once I finished with the entire stack, I flipped it over and let it dry overnight.
The next step was the finish. I opted for stained book cover and spine with the pages left natural. I felt this would give the piece a really nice contrast. For the stain I chose Minwax Wood Finish Oil-based Dark Walnut Semi-transparent interior stain. I applied the stain with a disposable foam brush wiping with an old rag. For the final finish I chose Minwax Fast-drying Polyeurethane Clear Satin Oil-based interior polyeurethane. I applied 8 thin coats of poly, lightly sanding with 220 grit sandpaper between coats.
I am really proud of the final product. I am currently working on another version where I will hand-paint the books using 4 shades of neutral green and antique white for the pages. I may even attempt to carve titles on the books.
If you build this project, leave a comment with a picture of your version. I think the possibilities are endless.
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