Barn Wood Book Shelf, Part 1

In the spirit of the barn door coffee table, Steve is working on a mock-up of a barn wood book shelf. Stacks of old, weathered barn siding always result in creative ruminations:


A book shelf, it seems to me, is just a fancy box with some horizontal boards to hold up the books. As far as the box part goes, you don't much see the back, top or bottom. That leaves only the sides wanting for ornamentation. When the ornamentation is also the structural integrity, you've got something. In this case I chose 3 pieces of siding (retaining the use of the original lap joints), cut them at 80 inches long, and nailed them together with short sections of scrap:


I nailed it together from the back side (what will be the inside of the book shelf) using ring-shank nails. The rings "grab" the wood better than a smooth-shank nail:




I liked the way the first one looked so I made the other side the same way, being careful to balance what remains of the original red paint over the entire side:


Next time I'll have the box part of the shelf assembled and ready for finishing touches. The final part will be making the adjustable shelves.