Chasing Cheerios

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

We recently made rain gutter bookshelves for O's room and Little Kicker's room. O enjoyed helping! I first saw the rain gutter bookshelves in Family Fun magazine years and years ago, and then saw them again on Ohdeedoh. I decided these would be the perfect shelves for Little Kicker's room.

The shelves were easy to make and look great. I love that the books are facing outward, and the shelf takes up very little room which is important since the closet door opens to this wall.

To make the shelves, we bought vinyl rain gutters from Lowes. They are sold in 10 foot sections, and Lowes said they would NOT cut them for us. They wouldn't fit in our car unless they were cut, so my mom, O, and I walked around the store until we found someone who looked nice. I asked very nicely if they could PLEASE cut the gutters so they would fit in our car, and the guy made an exception. Phew! In addition to the rain gutters, we bought right and left caps for each end and 2 brackets for each shelf. Elliott and his dad cut the rain gutters into 2 and a half foot lengths. They put the brackets and end caps onto the gutters and used sheetrock screws to attach the brackets to the wall. Then they were done! Fast and easy! We had two 5 feet sections leftover, so we put one of each on O and Little Kicker's walls.

When I asked O if she wanted a shelf on her wall, she said "kinda...no." She changed her mind after she saw how good it looked :)

21 comments:

  1. I LOVE this idea!! I'm going to have to show this to hubby when he gets home! We have an empty space above Nani's closet and this would go perfectly there! Thanks!

    ~ Jennifer
    http://thetoyboxyears.blogspot.com

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  2. I've always wondered if those would hold the books or just flop forward. Yours look great!!!! It's such a wonderful idea.

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  3. What a great idea! And they look so much nicer than I imagined when I read the title. I love that they hold so many books, all facing out. And I adore the picture of those little hands with the hammer! Too cute!

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  4. Your timing for this shelving makes me laugh. I just bookmarked these shelves from a different blog and was planning to buy the supplies next time we headed to town. Great minds think alike?! :)

    They look great!

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  5. i also love this idea....but my first thought was if you have a climber he/she might climb up to get the top books. thankfully I don't have to worry about that! I wonder if hubby is up for a project!

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  6. Great idea! My son has so many books that we have run out of room on his bookshelf. I may have to make these for extra space. About how much did everything cost?

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  7. hmmmm I might have to do this one. We'll see what the hubby says.

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  8. what a fantastic idea-I also like that the books are facing out!

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  9. Great idea!!!! We love books and we love cool ideas. Thanks for sharing!!!

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  10. What a fun idea!!! Both my girls have so many books that we don't know what to do with them. This could be my answer!!! Thanks!!!

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  11. I recently saw this on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30713396&id=1207942680&op=1&subj=15180106636&view=all&aid=-1&oid=15180106636&comments&alert

    I'm going to try that before going to rain gutters, I think (partly cause of the problems we'd have cutting them down). It uses mostly stuff we already have!

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  12. This is an awesome idea! I love it!

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  13. That is such a great idea - I have a question, though - what exactly did you use to attach them to the wall?

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  14. Great bookshelves! And it’s really nice you’ve made them yourselves.

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  15. That looks wonderful! I would have never thought to use rain gutters for that!

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  16. I LOVE this! We have been looking at school/library type display shelves where the books face out but they are so bulky - not to mention pricey. This is a great solution.

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  17. Super cute!! I've been wanting to do this ever since I saw it in Family Fun but never knew if they would really work or not. Yours look great!

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  18. I saw this on Ohdeedoh too and thought it was a weird idea but turns out looking great! I'm really curious about how much this project cost you?

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  19. I am SO going to make these bookshelves! I love encouraging my girls to read, and this is such a tasteful way of displaying them and making them easy to grab! It makes me want to create a little reading nook with a rug and bean bags and gutter shelves!! Thanks so much for the idea!!

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