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DIY Bookshelves for our Reading Nook

Beautiful DIY Bookshelves that you can hang on any wall! Make these quick and easy floating bookshelves for your reading nook!

reading nook with big circle chair

We’re making a reading nook! We’re putting this reading nook together one project as a time, and today we’re tackling some DIY bookshelves! We bought this big oversized chair that fits perfectly into the nook. Now we’re looking for a way to add some functional storage and idea number one was some floating DIY bookshelves behind the chair.

DIY bookshelves

*This post was sponsored by Kreg and Build Something, and may contain affiliate links. As always, opinions are 100% my own. For more information, please see my disclosure page.*

If this is going to be a reading nook, it needs to have a few spots to rest your books and your coffee mug (or glass of wine!).

I designed some shelves to sit above the chair that I thought would blend nicely into the space. High enough that no one hits their head on them, but low enough that it’s easy to pick up and put down your coffee.

making pocket holes

Pocket-Hole Joinery

Almost every one our builds includes pocket hole joinery, including this one! If you’ve never heard of pocket holes, it’s basically a way to have your wood pieces attach by drilling into the board through an angled hole. It allows you to hide your joinery and gives you a strong connection between the two pieces.

We have Kreg’s K5 Master System and we love it. I can honestly say that we use it on almost all of our builds because it’s so practical (& affordable!).

On this build, we use the pocket hole jig to attach the vertical and horizontal shelf boards. It only took a few minutes to add all of the pocket holes and then we had a beautiful complete finish.

PLUS the pocket hole jig is on sale right now for the holiday season! Grab one while you still can – you absolutely won’t regret having one for your future builds!

pocket hole shelves

How to Build Your DIY Bookshelves

Whether you have some woodworking skills or you’re a beginner woodworker, this will be an easy build for you! It’s a couple pieces of wood, cut to size, and attached with pocket holes.

The more complicated parts of the build are the nicer finishes, such as routering (rounding) the edges of the boards, and building the angled side pieces.

If you have the tools to do the routered edges, just sand them briefly to round them and don’t worry about that specific part of the design. Same for the angle measurements – straight cut side pieces will look amazing too!

Simple reading nook

To build our DIY bookshelves, we teamed up with Build Something to share the full build plans on their site.

If you’ve never heard of BuildSomething.com it is a website full of great build plans, that are available for FREE.

GRAB THE FREE BOOKSHELF PLANS HERE!

reading nook with big comfy circle chair
DIY bookshelves

DIY Bookshelves

Yield: 1
Active Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours
Difficulty: Medium
Estimated Cost: $100

Beautiful DIY Bookshelves that you can hang on any wall! Make these quick and easy floating bookshelves for your reading nook!

Materials

  • 4 1x8x8 boards
  • Pocket hole plugs
  • Pocket hole screws
  • Wood Glue
  • Stain
  • Varnish

Tools

  • Table Saw
  • Router Table
  • Mitre Saw
  • Sander
  • Pocket Hole Jig
  • Drill/Impact
  • Clamps
  • Brad Nailer

Instructions

  1. Cut boards to size
  2. Drill Pocket Holes
  3. Add routered edges to boards
  4. Add keyholes to back (for mounting to wall)
  5. Sand wood
  6. Assemble shelves
  7. Stain shelves
  8. Varnish shelves

Notes

For Build Plans and further instructions, see Build Something plans linked in post.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you’re looking for another great floating shelf idea, we made these shelves for less then $40 ($80 if you include the desktop!).

Collage of computer desk photos with text overlay reading "DIY desktop and floating shelves"

Emma

Thursday 21st of October 2021

Thank you SO MUCH!!! you're a life saver :D

Emma

Wednesday 20th of October 2021

Hey! I LOVE the chair you guys used in this reading nook area. I've been searching for the exact if not a similar one. Do you happen to remember the name of it or where you purchased it or even what kind of chair it is called so i could thin down my search? Thanks alot and i LOVE the shelving that you guys added <3

Lindi

Wednesday 20th of October 2021

Hey! We actually ordered ours from Costco online! It's called a "Cuddler" I believe!

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