What A Borders Bookshelf Taught Me About DIY

It's been an interesting weekend at our household. A few weeks back, we had purchased a large, double-sided bookcase from one of the Borders close-out sales. After we quickly realized our current loft configuration wouldn't accommodate the shelving behemoth, we embarked on a plan to completely rearrange and declutter our loft. That part? No problem. The shelf? A totally different story.

Lesson 1: Measure, measure, measure!
While shopping the close-out sale, I had my heart set on one of the huge magazine racks from the newsstand/periodical area. After closely studying it, I realized there was No. Way. we'd get it up and into our place.

Plan B? A bookcase. It was one of the taller ones, but better for us, I thought--more shelving room. I made a couple of cursory measurements to note the width, made the purchase, and moved on.

Flash forward a few weeks. After a temporary truck rental and some major heavy lifting on my husband's part, we got the shelf to the basement of our loft. And that's where we encountered the first huge problem: the shelf was too tall for the elevator, and given its weight, there was no way we could lift and maneuver it up three flights of stairs.

Lesson 2: Be ready to improvise. Many times.
Not to be deterred, my husband suggested dismantling the shelf, a process much easier said than done. After borrowing a power drill, he took off the sides, only to realize the bottom had been glued on. A couple purposeful swings of the hammer, and the bookshelf was officially in pieces--albeit whole, usable pieces.

Our bookshelf-related excitement peaked yesterday afternoon, only to be replaced by anger, sweating and some minor injuries. I'll save you the drama to let you in on a little secret: the shelf probably wasn't meant to be disassembled and put back together.

So keep that tip in mind when you're shopping a close-out sale. Measure everything multiple times, and make sure you can get the piece into your home. And on the off-chance that you can't, or you want it anyway, realize that retail fixtures are not designed to go apart and back together. They're sturdy, they're strong, and they're built to stay in one place.

Want to know how this all turned out? So do we. The shelf is now standing, but it's crooked (the work in progress appears as the lead photo in this post.) In a flash of inspiration before we fell asleep last night, Rob realized that the shelf sides weren't only screwed into the supports--they were glued, too. Tonight we'll be taking off the sides, reattaching them with wood glue, to be followed by the screws once the glue is fully dried. Hopefully that fixes the problem, or else we've got a $150 pile of firewood. Lesson(s) learned, right?

Now I'm curious to know what project helped you learn some important DIY lessons. Feel free to share your experience in the comments!

Katy Ryan | Comments () |

Zachemma

I purchased 8 book shelves from a Borders in Chicagoland in August. This past weekend I installed all of them. Three are being used in a barn I built 4 years ago and the rest are in my house. These book shelves are the one with the decorative backing (not the standard black) and they look beautiful. I made three trips to get all of them home (in one piece). As mentioned by another person, they are noice but extremely heavy!. I

Lin

I bought 3 of those double sided book cases. I dismantled the first one in-store and reassembled it in the bonus room above my garage. I agree that the thing was not met to be taken apart and reassembled... though mine does stand straight and strong. I rented a truck for the other 2 book cases, and they're now standing in my garage waiting to be lifted up the stairs into the bonus room. I love these cases, but man are they heavy!

tinagleisner

Great story and don't be too hard on yourself as we've all got our share of woes. I'm sitting here smiling as we bought a damaged, 2 piece low bookcase - one side slides on top of the other, solid oak for $75. We bought this at least 5 years ago, never fixed it so we've never really used it ... boo. Anyways, we were about to get rid of it when my friend who's a decorator suggested, the lower half (not broken) would make a wonderful window seat ... yeah!!!

A Ryan

Our family has done many DIY furniture put-togethers--mostly because Marc is incredibly smart when it comes to putting things together. Tim isn't far behind him. I swear it's because of all the Lego projects they did as kids. Larry, on the other hand, is another story but he's always willing to try. I have done many projects on my own--before and after the boys.

The last family project was a wall unit that fits one of the walls in the living room very nicely. I'm sick of it and want to get rid of it. It's in perfect condition but I think we will have to literally take it apart because it won't leave the room without blood, sweat, tears, and lots of cursing--which Larry is quite good--if we don't.

Your suggestions are excellent to measure, measure, measure. I have a friend who is a carpenter and his favorite comment is always, "Measure twice, cut once."

But there is absolutely nothing better at making family memories than taking on projects like this and the big sighs of relief, contentment, and pride in a job well done at the end.