This is my first larger furniture piece and definitely made lots of mistakes between design and execution.
It’s all cherry and designed so one end is a right angle and the top shelf if shallower to fit into the fireplace.
My main power tool is a track saw but I did have access to a wood shop for a day to mill some rougher boards. Otherwise I used hand tools to finish the rest.
I used dowels and track saw cut grooves/rabbets for most of the joinery.
It was a mistake to make it in two sections instead of just having the sides be one larger piece. I also went too aggressive with my new router. Should have made much smaller bevels.
Congratz on the woodworking achievement! But,… somehow a fireplace seems like an inappropriate place for books…
Perfect for sporting Fahrenheit 451
Damn, you got it first. Have a begrudging kudos.
Your username makes me think you used to be a tooth fairy, until you got fired for spreading conspiracy theories to kids. Asking them to question why a fairy needs so many kids teeth.
Um, yeah. Let’s go with that. I’m definitely not the disembodied spirit of a dead and disgraced Suk doctor that betrayed his loyalty to House Atreides and his oath in order to recover his captured wife from Vladimir Harkonnen.
I mean, one of the books has a picture of a cat, and the title “I should pee on this”
Forbidden firewood
What a cool idea for an unused fireplace, from a non-woodworker I’d say it looks great! Is the narrower side of the top shelf large enough for an average sized book, or did space constraints not allow for that? With a bookend it could make a nice trinket shelf in the narrow corner
This was made mostly for our new child, so there’s quite a lot of variety of sizes with children’s books. Hopefully that should work out ok with how shallow it is on that end.
Oh, it being for your new child makes it even better! The shelf being directly at child level will make it so much more fun and engaging, too
Yeah that was my wife’s idea! So the kid can go and pick out a book.
This looks so good that you’ll probably encounter nitpicking criticism, which is a fantastic achievement! Congratulations!
Is it removable? Like when it’s winter you can take the bookshelf out and use the fireplace, or is this permanent?
It just slides in, although we may mount it somehow to avoid children moving it around.
I’m guessing your first?
Secure it. Children are nightmarish levels of creative when it comes to choices that are dangerous to them.
A quick example…
My kids like to watch the animals out back. Deer, birds, bobcats, foxes, etc. Upstairs, the windows are a bit lower. Downstairs, they are a bit higher.
My daughter would stand on a chair, or use a stepstool, or even stand on the couch. She’s big enough to not need any of those options anymore.
My son also uses the chair, stool, or couch, but he doesnt stop there. The exterior walls are pretty thick, so the interior sill is just shy of 6".
Your guess is correct, he uses the chair, stool, or couch to get onto the sill to look at them. We tried to block access with plants… He moved them or knocked them off. When I put some boards up, he stood on top of the dining room table. He then thought the chandelier made a really neat swing. He is incredibly opportunistic, and will do this when I’m working in my office and mom is cooking or in the bathroom. The moment he realizes he has a solid set of moments, he is off to commit acts of preschool terrorism.
I highly recommend securing it.
Also, congrats!
Book shelf fireplace
To make it easier to burn books? 🤔
(That looks super cool, honestly)
