DIY furniture: wooden shelf in rustic style

Recommendation points

• Choosing materials
• Workpiece marking
• Increasing the width of the lower part of the sidewalls, rounding the edges of the shelves
• Making wide shelves
• Sawing out ledges on shelves
• Fitting and sanding
• Wood pre-finishing
• Final assembly of the shelf

Lovers of woodworking will love making a wooden shelf in a rustic style. A few solid wood planks, a little skill, and your home is decorated with durable and functional furniture with a unique natural pattern. Let’s take a look at our step by step photo instructions.

The bookcase that we offer you to make is made of maple and walnut sleepers. Spalt is a naturally aged wood that has its own unique pattern. In the absence of a trellis, you can use any other type of wood. Finally, you can craft it out of brushed pine, which also has a custom wood grain..

The shelf consists of 4 shelves and a lower cabinet, which can be left open or doors can be made for it. The side walls of the bookcase are decorated with curly cutouts that turn into the shelf stops.

The advantage of this shelf is that it looks airy due to the lack of a back wall and the use of beautiful wood..

The dimensions of the finished shelf are 70 cm wide and 150 cm high, including the height of the cabinet – 50 cm.The length of each shelf is 70 cm, the thickness is 2.5 cm.

Required tools and materials:

• a circular saw;
• reciprocating saw or hacksaw blade;
• drill;
• electric jigsaw;
• manual router or chisel;
• sander, sandpaper;
• clamps;
• wood glue (for example, PVA);
• wooden dowels (chopiki);
• wood screws.

Choosing materials

The length of the board for the shelves should be a multiple of 70 cm. For the shelves, we use boards of different widths. For the narrowest ones, choose a width of 25 cm. These are the two upper shelves. The third and fourth shelves will be 30 cm wide, and the fifth and sixth – 40 cm.They will also be the top and bottom shelves of the cabinet.

For the side walls, we will choose a board with a contrasting color or texture, 20 cm wide, at least 2.5 cm thick, 2 m long.

Workpiece marking

First mark and cut 47.5 cm from each board for the sidewalls. With these segments, we will increase the width of the sidewalls to increase the depth of the cabinet. On the rest of the boards for racks, we will mark the location of the shelves.

The height of the lower compartment is 50 cm, including the thickness of the upper shelf 2.5 cm. The distance to the shelf inside the cabinet from the top shelf of the cabinet is 25 cm, including the thickness of the shelf is 2.5 cm. The surface of the uppermost shelf coincides with the upper end of the sidewall.

After applying the markings to the inside of the sidewalls, cut out the grooves for the shelves with a depth of 1.5 cm with a circular saw and select them with a chisel.

After preparing the grooves, we outline the shape of the support for the shelves. Their width is 10 cm, and the rounding begins at a height of 20 cm from the bottom of the lower groove. It is better to use a stencil for drawing a contour so that the shape of all supports is identical. You can choose the form based on your own preferences. Then we cut out the supports with a jigsaw.

Increasing the width of the lower part of the sidewalls, rounding the edges of the shelves

It was the turn of those parts of the boards that were cut off at the first stage. Using dowels and glue, we fasten parts of the sidewalls and increase the width of the bottom of the side posts up to 40 cm.

This will give stability to the bookcase and increase the depth of the bottom. To give rounded shapes to the edges of the posts, we will process the ends with a hand mill.

We will cut the shelves 70 cm each, round the front corners of the shelves with a jigsaw, process the ends with a hand mill.

Making wide shelves

For the manufacture of wide shelves of the curbstone, you can connect two boards using dowels, wood glue and clamps. The finished shelf should be 40 cm wide.

Sawing out ledges on shelves

Shelf tabs for added structural strength.

We saw on the shelves with a hand saw a rectangle 2.5 cm deep from the side edge and 10 cm from the rear edge of the shelf.

On the sidewalls we will cut out additional projections for the uppermost shelf of the shelf.

Fitting and sanding

Check the compatibility of all parts without fastening them together. If there are inconsistencies, clean up the grooves and protrusions with a chisel.

Use a sander to sand the parts and clean corners and bevels by hand.

Wood pre-finishing

If you use spall, then it must be treated with tung oil, and only then treated with varnish or other protective compounds. If you are using regular wood, you can immediately prime the surface and then apply a topcoat. Do not forget to leave clean the ends and grooves of the parts to be joined..

Final assembly of the shelf

After applying the final coat and drying it, proceed to assembly. We glue the joints and fix each shelf with clamps on both sides.

After that, we drill holes for the dowels through the side racks into the shelves. Before installing the dowel, apply glue to it and in the hole. We repeat the procedure for each of the shelves..

After the glue has dried, use a reciprocating saw or hacksaw blade to trim the protruding parts of the dowels. In order not to scratch the surface, glue masking tape around the dowels.

Clean the cut area with sandpaper and cover with varnish or stain.

The shelf is ready. It remains only to install it in a suitable place..

If it is necessary to make a cabinet that can be closed with doors from the lower compartment, then you need to make a pair of doors and a back wall. We make them from plywood 1–1.5 cm thick. We use small hinges to fasten the doors. We fasten the back wall with self-tapping screws. The top of the curbstone, like the bottom shelf, can be connected to the sidewalls using dowels, but it is more reliable to fasten them with confirmations.