Saturday, March 06, 2010

Calling all carpenters!

Sarah and I are looking for some bookshelves. Pretty simple, right? Well, not so much. We have some odd requirements:
-Made in the US, not out of wood chopped out of some rainforest.
-Modular enough that they can be disassembled and moved.
-Capable of holding quite a bit of crap (we have a lot of books - I'd say we want something in the range of 60-80 cubic feet, assuming the shelves are about 1 foot deep).
-Reasonably attractive.
-Durable enough to last for decades.

And yes, I have been barred from trying to build something like this out of metal and welding it together. Not exactly my area of expertise. If some type of machined metal bracket was needed, I could certainly help, though.

Think you can build something like this? Want to trade for a custom frame? Drop me a line.

For reference, here are some ideas that we thought were interesting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/popsie/391788225/
http://homeinteriordesignthemes.com/2009/06/rubik-cube-style-dynamic-shelving/
http://www.smartfurniture.com/shop/images/catalog/newpics/mediastorage_0308f001_maple.jpg

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How modular are you looking for? do the cubes need to come apart? or can they separate as towers?

LeeAB

Hugh Williams said...

Hey Walt,
I made something like what you are after, super easy and can email you some plans in the next couple of days, can take a picture too.
Modular boxes that stack together made of 19mm ply and glued and pinned together. The hardest part was cutting it up which you could easily trade for beer. I am in Aus so no making it for you but it is just a case of making a picture frame fixture that is the correct shape and glue the whole lot together.
Best thing about DIY is when you need more shelving its easy to do more.

Hugh

Anonymous said...

Those look to be all veneer, they will not last decades, years but not decades. Veneer will either chip fade or bend due to its non-solid construction. Lots of packaging transportation waste for eco-friendly marketed politically correct furniture. And rainforest or not, solid wood furniture comes from trees. It's easy to fall into the noble "save the trees" but nothing is more green than handmade furniture that lasts for centuries and looks classically gorgeous for generations to come. Just a bit of fyi from a classical fine furniture purveyor. - Wilson

Walt said...

Anon -

Agreed. We want solid and durable enough to last a lifetime. Nothing greener than *never throwing it away*, regardless of where the wood comes from.

-Walt