bookshelf [finished].

Well I finished the bookshelf a few weeks ago but just now got around to taking some photos of it. So starting with the 'bookshelf' I had in place since the day I moved in here oh I don't know about six years ago now -



Pretty sweet.

But then I drew up a plan -



And then I bought a bunch of lumber -



And then ... I had a bookshelf -



I haven't glued the 'mission'-style strips to each side yet cos I'm still undecided about them (those are the strips of wood behind the lamp). Overall I'm pretty satisfied - although of course I wish I had done some things differently and I'm already thinking of the next furniture project and how much better I will hopefully be able to make it.

Step #1 will be to move beyond Poor Man's joinery (i.e. pocket hole screws) and pony up for a decent router table and some bits so I can do mortise and tenon and dovetail joinery for my next project ... bedside tables. They'll match the design of the dresser - just on a smaller scale to give me some practice with those dovetails.

I walked to the library a couple weeks ago one evening and picked up some books about joinery, applying finishes (another weakness of mine due to my lack of - well - any real knowledge on the subject) and just general furniture building.

But for now at least my books are not stuffed in boxes on top of boxes on top of boxes ...



(Shows the bit of 'distressing' I did to the edge with a chisel)