I Built It Myself - Bookshelf

At our house we have tons of books.  It has gotten to the point that we don't have enough room for them all anymore.  So I decided to build a bookshelf for my son's room.  I went to Ana White's website.  She has tons of free building plans for everything - beds, bookshelves, tables, chairs, desks - anything you can think of.  If you haven't visited her site go check it out.  It's amazing.

I used the  loft bed, small bookcase and desk plans, but I only made the bookshelf portion.  

I used a special jig we bought for another project and drilled pocket holes for the screws so they wouldn't be visible.

Here's a tip:  When placing your shelf, measure and draw a line. Then line up the shelf on the line when you screw it in.  Just make sure your on the correct side of the line. Yeah, I screwed it in on the wrong side of the line and the shelf was sloping to the left.  Luckily I noticed before the glue had dried and it was easily fixed. 

I had some baseboards that I used for some trim to add a little more detail to it.  I think it just makes the piece.  Then I filled all the holes and sanded everything down.

Then I painted it a flat black that we had left over from something else.

I think it's easier to paint it before you put the back on.

I decided that I didn't like the flat paint.  So I sprayed on some clear glossy spray paint. 

Total cost for my project? 
Since I had the paint, backing, glue, and baseboards on hand, it only cost $20 for the wood and some screws.