DIY Desk Shelving

It's well known that storage in college is no bueno, which means it's up to us to find creative ways to make the most out of our space on a college student budget. I was recently researching shelving options for my desk that would be a) inexpensive and b) not make holes in my wall, and I found a design that I really liked but I didn't want to pay $30 for faux wood; hence the "DIY" in my title. So I quickly drew up some of my own plans to make my own shelves and got to making. I hope if you're a DIYer like me, this helps.

Start off with a 1x8" board that's 8 feet long. I ripped mine down to 6.25" because that seemed to be the sweet spot for books to be able to sit on it, but you can customize the width to your needs. You'll need to cut the board into 7 pieces as is shown below. Adjusting the length of "A" will get you a longer or shorter shelving system.

After that, I marked where the boards would go together on the side boards (B). This really helps when you're gluing and stapling later.

Now it's assembly time! I used wood glue along with a staple gun to put the pieces together (this is a two person job). Afterwards, I filled in the holes from the nails with wood putty, let it dry overnight, and then sanded the wood back down to be stained. The stain I used was Dark Walnut by Minwax (in case you were wondering), but you can finish it however you want!

Last but not least, I decided to brighten up the look with some white paint! I absolutely love the look of white paint imperfectly applied so that a wood stain comes through! #rustic #joannagaines It makes the wood look like a century old within a couple of minutes! Hope you like it just as much as I do! Happy building!