I was hoping to be able to write a post about these bookshelves AND a completed desk, but the desk isn’t finished. It will probably be another week or so. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do when it comes to applying the finish in this cold weather.. My shop isn’t heated. I’ll just cross that bridge when I get to it I suppose, 65 degree winter days in Nashville aren’t too uncommon, maybe I’ll get lucky.
I finished this set of bookshelves sometime in late october, but didn’t receive the glass until just a week ago. Tempered & laminated glass is a bit more expensive then I realized. Also much thicker. I had dadoed the doors expecting ~ 1/8″ thick glass; this glass was over 1/4″ thick. So I had to alter my glass holding strategy, but that’s ok.
At first I assumed that we were going to be getting rid of the french doors, but I kinda like them there.
Cremone bolts on the bottom doors.. I thought two bolts per case would look a little heavy, so I centered the bolt on the case, and made one of the door stiles thicker than the other so it could accommodate the centered hardware. If I had to do it again, I may have just done two bolts per case to eliminate that off-centered door line. I’m pretty indecisive, as you can tell.
These are highly-modified versions of some bookshelves in PWM (dec 09, plans here). I even made the crown moulding myself! Cove cuts on the table saw are super dusty and annoying though, I don’t really recommend it.
My wife helped me apply two coats of General Finishes Milk Paint (antique white), and that was that! I’m was relieved to be done, honestly. Large projects (like, physically large) take quite a toll. There’s just so much hand planing, fitting, sanding, painting, etc.. These are a full 8 feet high, so finally getting these out of the shop and into the house was quite a relief.
Hopefully I’ll be posting pictures of a desk shortly!
– Matt
