Dr. Seuss Bookshelf for sweet baby Xander!

Well, we meet again :) I've had a busy couple of weeks, including a trip to the states to meet my brand new nephew, Xander, who this bookshelf was made for. I've been waiting to get a shot of the shelf here in their nursery before I wanted to do my post on it to share with my friends over at Ana-White! For those of you that don't know... I built this shelf as a baby gift for my sister, Bev, to add to their Dr. Seuss themed nursery. It was built in the Bahamas and shipped to Alabama. I just wanted to do a quick little summary of how I chose to build this shelf, for those interested :) 

We saw a photo of a similar one online and my sister loved it. She couldn't find one to buy that she liked, so I asked her if I could build it for her. In all honesty, the hardest (and most expensive) part about this project was getting it from the Bahamas to Alabama. I had to make a few repairs after the shipment, but we got it back up to par and it is now sitting nicely in their creative nursery. 

I have only been woodworking for a little over a year, and I don't have any 'fancy' tools. I got some really great saws (compound miter and table) at Christmas that really helped, and some awesome drills, but you can do this project with pretty basic tools. 

To get the curved shape, I took some 1x8 boards and cut the shapes. The left side is cut into two boards (for the front face) and the right side is one long piece (for the front face). I cut the boards for the front and the back, so two of each of the boards you see above. 

Next, I screwed the boards to a top shelf and a bottom base and then stacked 1x2's up the side to make the curve of the shelf. I know these are really simple and condensed instructions, but if you want to know more specifically what I did... feel free to email or comment and I will do the best I can to answer them. I really was just working from a photo we liked and had to 'tweak' things as I went, so no officially measurements or step by step here.

I used glue and an air compressor and staple gun (that I borrowed) to secure the 1x2's to the front and back curved boards. Once they dry and are set well, sand the surface nice and smooth. I used a power sander to really get some of the bigger edges rounded and smooth. A big reason I used the staple gun instead of screwing or nailing each piece here is because of the time. It was so much quicker to glue and staple, and then filling in the holes for sanding and painting at the very end was so much easier with these little holes to fill vs big screw holes. Plus, I'm really bad with a hammer and skinny nails...REALLY bad :) 

I cut the shelves to size and used bevel cuts on the ends of the slanted shelves to get a tighter fit. I attached them with screws and more staples. Then added another board on the very top to give it the little overhang. 

I think my favorite thing on the shelf is the feet. Of course I love the little foot with the pink toes (which belongs to my son, Emit) :), but I'm talking about the feet on the shelf. They were so easy, but gave it just the right touch (in my opinion). They were scrap 2 by's that I cut to size and beveled to give me the shape and look I wanted. 

For the back, I just traced the shape on a sheet of 1/4" plywood and attached it to the frame. 

I would highly recommend anchoring this shelf to the wall to increase the stability. I don't have the exact measurements I used, but it would be very easy to make your own piece to your dimensions. To finish it, I filled in on the holes and sanded everything really smooth. Painted it this nice bright red and topped it with a clear coat spray on finish. I hope they get lots of years of use and enjoyment out of this shelf.And of course, I just love my little helpers... they were very excited to help me build this funky little shelf for the sweet new cousin.  Made with lots of love from your Aunt T! :) 

Hope you enjoyed this and could follow along with what I did!