DIY Book Bin

DIY Book Bin

Make your own library on legs to display your favorite children's books

By Helen Thompson

I made this sweet book bin so I could organize the boys' books in a way that we could see them easily and find new books to read. I had lots of DMs and comments from people who wanted to build their own, so here's a tutorial on how I made it. It was really easy, and it's nice to have a little piece of furniture in your child's room that you made yourself. You can buy lumber at the local hardware store, or repurpose old bookshelves.

YOU WILL NEED:

I used 3/4" wood boards that I bought at the hardware store (if you're following my measurements, the width of the board matters).

  • 1 x Bottom Piece – 36" x 16"
  • 2 x Long Side Pieces – 36" x 9"
  • 4 x Short Side and Insert Pieces – 14.50" x 9"
  • 4 x Table Legs
  • Furniture Leg Attachment Plates
  • Wood Glue
  • Drill
  • Wood Screws
  • Wallpaper or removable wallpaper (I used Livettes Dalmatian Spot Print)
  • Small pot of paint

DIRECTIONS:

First lay the base piece on a flat surface and use the wood glue to fix one long side piece onto the base.

Then glue the 4 short side and insert pieces on, and finally the last long side piece.

When the glue is dry, turn the box over so that the base is on top and drill screws through the base and into the side pieces and inserts to reinforce them. This is the trickiest part because you need to be careful to get the screws in the right place. If you screw them in at an angle, you might expose the sharp tip of the screw.

Then it's time to paint the whole thing. I chose white because my wallpaper was white with black spots. I also painted the legs white to match the outside of the box.

The fun part was the wallpaper. You could use anything on the inside – paint on dots, découpage your kids' artwork, etc. If you choose to cover the inside with removable wallpaper like I did, measure the panels after the bin is put together and use a utility knife to cut the paper. I covered all the inside panels, which ended up being 12 pieces in total, but if you know which way the book bin will face, you don't need to cover the panels you won't see.

Lastly, attach the painted table legs, starting with the mounting plates. Screw a mounting plate to each corner of the bottom about 1″ from edges. Thread a leg into each mounting plate.

The legs simply screw into the mounting plates and often have a little floor protector built in. We used those little foam pads that stick on the bottom of furniture to protect wood floors.

We love our little library book bin. It keeps piles of books off the floor and the little ones can pick a story by the cover art as they flip through it at night. If you make one, we'd love to see how it turns out! Share a photo on Instagram and tag @helenmilanhome.


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