DIY Kitchen BookShelf

Welcome back, I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer time, making memories and catching rays. LMB and I have enjoyed the wonderful Michigan summer that we have been longing for, high 80’s during the day and mid 60’s at night, we love it. As you know, from LMB, we have recently renovated our house with new kitchen cabinets and counters, along with updated flooring and interior doors. One of our favorite, modest upgrades to our home was the five pane doors that you can see throughout the entire home, it really accents our desire to make this house reflect our cottage style and we truly love them. The doors that were replaced have been put to use for the most part, they have been bolted to the walls in the garage for added storage for tools and wood. I had a few scrap pieces that were taking up some space in the corner and decided that they either had to go, or be used for something, and with that I created these DIY Kitchen Bookshelf

The DIY Kitchen Bookshelf has sides that are created from one set of bifold “shutter” doors, and the shelves are made from a half of a set of a bifold regular door. These doors were the closet doors in the main and guest bedrooms. This build was super cheap since I already had the doors, but if you want to take on this build, I see doors all the time at flea markets, and garage sales, so this build can be very cheap for you as well. Before we start any installation, remove any previous hardware from the bi-folds, and cover them up with wood filler or sand them away.

The build.

Once you have the width of your space, you are going to build a base structure for the top by simply building a box, totaling the total width plus the thickness of the doors to be your measured space. Repeat this step and this will be the base for the bottom.

Attach the top and the bottom to each shutter, and you know have a hollow box.

As I stated in the begging the shelves are made from old bifold doors, this is a great material for a books shelf, since they are mostly hollow with the exception of the sides and bottoms, so it doesn’t add too much overall weight, and if supported correctly offers the same strength. Next, attach the backing of the entire piece, because this is what is going to attach to the shelves in the next step. To attach the backing simply use a pneumatic nail gun or regular staple gun. I purchased the plywood prior to knowing the overall size, so that white MDF board you see in there is actually a filler that I used to close the gap of the the short 24 inch wide plywood for my 25 5/8 wide piece. That board is not needed if you purchase the right size plywood, I had scrap pieces of wood to fill in the gap so I used that, so do not worry about that for your build.

The doors that were used for shelves were cut to 25 5/8 inches and are evenly spaced them 9 1/2 inches apart (we later removed the bottom shelf for dog food and water). First attach them to the backing of the piece with 2 inch wood screws. In this state, the shelves are very fragile, since there is absolutely no support on the front, so work around them very carefully, during this step. After every shelf is installed, we are going to work on the front support to the support. I used a 1 x 3  piece of common pine, and cut spacers between each shelf at 9 1/4 length. The added support to the front of the shift is a two step process. Step 1. Measure the front face of your shelf to the very front of the shutter side. Mine measured to 2 1/4 inches. I then ripped the 1 x 3 common board to 2 1/4 inch wide and cut it to 75 1/2 inches long. Using clamps, glue the common board to the sides of the shutter so that the inside butts up again the shelf and the outside is flush with the shutter front face. Step 2. with the remaining common board for the near 3/4 inch rip from step one, cut 9 1/4 inch pieces or spacers to fit between each shelf, glueing the spacer to the side of the shutter and the top and bottom of the ripped common board in step one. This will complete the added front support for the shelves. Close out the top and bottom of the piece by cutting and fitting a piece of plywood into each space glue and nail or staple it down. Essentially the piece is complete, but for added touch I added crown molding at the top and bottom. The piece is now ready for paint, we used Maison Blanche: Ivory, and we have yet to decide what we are going to wax it with to seal it.

The Supplies

Using the same materials as I did:

(2) sets of Bi-fold doors of equal size

(2) 6 ft long decorative crown molding of your choice

(4) 1 x 3 @ 6ft common board

(2) 4ft x 4 ft plywood

Pneumatic nails

Wood Screws

Wood Glue

Wood Filler

Using bought materials from local store

(4) 1 x 16 @ 8 ft

The Tools

Miter Saw

Table Saw

Level

Pneumatic Nail Gun or Stapler

Clamps

Drill

Overall Dimensions

28 3/4″ wide

14 3/4″ long

80″ tall

12″ deep shelves

That is it! Let me know what you think of this very unique and recycle build of old bi-fold doors that typically get thrown away or attached to the garage wall for a quick shelf. If you have any questions or take the build on yourself please share with me in the comments below or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you.