I recently made some custom book ledges for my daughter’s room and both she and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Best of all? They couldn’t have been any easier. Read on to see what a couple of craft boards and some wood glue can get you!
Basic materials to make each book ledge:
Additional materials (if desired):
White paint (for whitewash)
Polycryilc (in semi-gloss)
Tools:
Drill (with a countersink bit, if desired) — this could be skipped if you don’t have a drill on hand — just screw the screws straight in!
Assembly steps:
I began by determining exactly how long I wanted each book ledge to be. Since I had already installed picture frame molding on the walls, I wanted each ledge to fit inside and didn’t want them to be too long (books sticking out on either side were fine with me). I decided 2-foot shelves would be perfect. After testing out some books on the ledges, I decided two ledges on each side would be plenty.
Lowes sells pine craft boards in 2-foot lengths, so I decided that would be easier on me.
Note: this project likely could have been even more economical, or I could have selected different wood had I selected longer boards and cut them myself. But I chose to work smarter here.
Next up, I glued the two wider boards together at a right angle, clamping them as I went. I let them initially dry for at least 20-30 minutes before removing the clamps.
Note: I had tried using my nail gun to further secure the boards together, but I decided against it since I only had longer nails on hand. Again, just working smarter here…and I didn’t want to go to the store again.
I then took the smaller board, and attached it to the front of the ledge, clamping as I did before.
After fully dry, I did a quick sand to even the craft boards out, and ensure everything was smooth.
I played around with different whitewash techniques here, since I wanted these ledges to match the existing crib we have in the room. I went with a 2:1 ratio of water to white paint (that I already had on hand). I bushed it on and immediately wiped it off with a cloth.
After fully dry, I then applied a coat of polycrylic to match the glossiness of the crib, and to provide a bit of durability to the ledges.
When it was time to hang the shelves, I chose to go easy on myself again, and simply screwed them into the wall. But since I’m a little extra, I purchased black screws to match the other black accents in the room. I drilled 3 evenly-spaced pilot holes into the wide board that would go against the wall. I made sure to countersink each one.
Using a level, I held each shelf up and marked exactly where each pre-drilled hole should go into the wall.
I then installed the three drywall anchors into the wall with the screwdriver. I knew that I wasn’t going to hit any studs, and these anchors haven’t steered us wrong before!
Finally, I put the book ledge on the wall, screwed the three screws in, and I was ready to reveal it to my toddler!
When she first saw the book ledges, my daughter’s reaction was priceless — she kept saying “uh-oh!”, like, “what did Mommy do this time?!” For the record, I think Mommy did pretty well here, especially for a project that was so easy!
The drive to complete this project came down to many things — our two-year-old daughter LOVES to read and has SO many books that they were overflowing the existing small bookcase in her closet. I also read recently that it’s so important for kids to be able to see the covers of each book, especially toddlers who can’t quite read yet. And now that the book ledges are done, I can see how much more excited she is to pick out books that she hasn’t read in a while (because they were spine-side out on a regular bookshelf before). She can communicate that she wants the “monkey book” or “choo-choo book” so much easier now, which makes me so happy!
I’d highly recommend this super simple book ledge project! Enjoy!