How to Build Shelves for a Child's Room

Encourage your children to read by building them easy-to-access shelves in their room.

Shelves create an easily accessible place for you to display books in a child's room. Younger children benefit from having the covers of the books visible on shelves. While there are many shelves designed with this in mind available in stores, you can make your own shelves using rain gutters. Rain gutters make ideal shelves for a child's room. You can mount them to the wall studs using gutter hangers. The gutters can be mounted to the wall at any height and will allow you to prop the books inside with the front covers on display.

Things You'll Need

• 2 vinyl rain gutters, 96 inches long
• Tape measure
• Miter saw
• 8 vinyl gutter end caps
• Vinyl gutter cement
• Stud finder
• 8 vinyl gutter hangers, with screws
• Level
• Screw gun

Instructions

1. Mark the center of two 96-inch rain gutters with a pencil and tape measure. Lay the gutters, one at a time, on a miter saw and cut the gutters in half. Pull the trigger and guide the saw down through the gutter and back up to the start position. Release the trigger once the saw is back to the start position to complete each cut.

2. Fit a vinyl cutter end cap over each of the ends of the four 48-inch-long rain gutter shelves to ensure that they fit properly. Remove the caps and apply vinyl gutter cement to the inside of the caps where they join with the gutter, then press the caps back in place.

3. Slide a stud finder along the wall where you would like to hang the shelves. Mark the location of the wall studs on the wall with a pencil.

4. Clip vinyl gutter hangers onto the rain gutter shelves. Align the hangers with two evenly spaced wall studs along the wall. Select the height for each of the shelves, and mark the wall at the four selected heights for the four shelves using a tape measure and pencil. Mark the wall along the two wall studs that you will use to mount the hangers on.

5. Hold each rain gutter shelve, one at a time, against the wall and line the hangers up with the marked heights. Place a level inside the rain gutter shelves and adjust them for level. Drive the screws included with the hangers into the wall studs using a screw gun to fasten each rain gutter shelf to the wall.

Tips & Warnings

• Place your child's favorite books on the shelves with the front covers facing out. Allow the child to decorate the shelves with stickers.

• Wear eye protection when operating power tools to avoid eye injury.

References

• Disney Family Fun: Rain Gutter Bookshelves
• "The Read-Aloud Handbook"; Chapter 7: The Print Climate in the Home,    School, and Library; Jim Trelease
• "Mama Notes"; Rain Gutter Bookshelves; February 2010