Easy DIY Pocket Shelf and Bosch Father’s Day Giveaway!

Growing up my dad was always super handy, and we had a lot of tools around because- well, he was a chainsaw wood sculptor.   Cool, I know.  I never actually got to learn how to wield a chainsaw, although he would have taught me if I would have asked, but he got sick when I was about 13 and had to retire early.  But you better believe, I was outside making beds for my dolls with scrap wood and somehow the creativity and access to simple tools gave me a confidence that I could learn how to DIY.

Fast forward to my 35th year and I have two little daughters of my own and a SUPER duper handy husband.  And after remodeling 5 houses together, I must thank the heavens for his handiness!!   And I have a secret for you ladies our there who wish your husbands would do more projects around the house…. if you want your hubby to finish the honey do list,  tools make all the difference.  Maybe it is just me, but when ever I get something new, I am excited to use it, well… this concept works for hubbies too!!  You’re welcome.

Luckily my husband, not only likes to make things with his hands, and learn how to do things, he is a very patient father.  One important thing that I want for my girls is for them to feel empowered that they can do things that are hard, or, that they can learn how to do it if they don’t know how.  So we try to teach them little skills.

Since  Father’s Day is coming up it was VERY exciting to give my hubby the perfect father’s day gift.  He got an amazing drill set, the Bosch CLPK232A-181 18V Drill Driver / Impact Driver Combo Kit (“Bosch Driver Kit”)   (just FYI, it is on sale right now at Lowes – retailing regularly at $229 but available from now until 7/4/16 for $169)  See the perfect gift!!  We have some huge outdoor projects planned this summer and I know as we build our kids a playhouse this summer we will make so many fun memories (Technically our friends gave us their old play set which is already REALLY nice, but we went to Disneyland recently and came home with a million cool idea to make it amazing!!  

The best part about today is that we are giving away a drill set in partnership with Bosch and to kick it off!!!

 Bosch 2 Drill Driver Kit

But for added fun, we decided to build a small book shelf inspired from one we saw at the home show.  Technically it reminded me of the pallet wood shelves you’ve seen but a little less distressed and rough.  The cool part is that this project took less than 20 minutes!   We just gathered mostly scrap wood from our garage (which I know not everyone has, but if you do, it is a great scraps project- and you can buy new wood for this if you need to) cut, pre-drill holes and assemble.

 

Easy Build Book Pocket Shelf With Bosch

For this project we made two 30″ long pocket shelf.   All dimensions can be altered to fit any length you need.  However you will need to alter them on your own, you can do it!!

Supplies:

30″ 1 x 10 Pine (or other wood)

approx 36″ 1 x 6 Pine (or other wood)

28 1/2″ 1 x 3 Pine (or equivalent)

1 1/4 Course Threaded Pocket hole screws OR 1 1/2″ wood Screws

 

Tools:

Bosch CLPK232A-181 18V Drill Driver (on Sale til July 4th)

Hand Saw or Miter Saw

Optional : Pocket Hole Jig

Instructions:

Step One:

• Cut the boards to length.

The back board is the 1 x 10 (actual dimensions 9 1/2″) and should measure exactly 30″ long

The front piece, 1 x 6 (actual dimensions 5 1/2″) should be 30″ long as well.  

You also need to cut 2 – 2 1/2″ pieces from your 1 x 6 (these will be the sides- see diagram.  Once cut the two pieces will measure 5 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ )

The bottom will be 1 x 3 (actual dimensions 2 1/2″) cut down to 28 1/2″

 

Step Two: 

• Drill your pocket holes
• Nail, if not using pocket holes.

We decided to pocket hole jig the boards.  We were able to hide the pocket holes inside the “pocket of the shelf”  (but we learned this on our second shelf).  The final screws were on the back of the board, so when it is attached to the wall you will never see them.

TIP**  We realized on the second shelf build that we could flip this board around and not see the pocket screws.   So if you are building yours do it the right way, have the pocket screws on the inside of the shelf  to hide them!!)

If you do not have a pocket hole jig, you can simple nail the pieces together. You can use a small finish nail and drive the heads in and patch or leave the hole open, or you can use a nail with a small head and leave them exposed for a more farmhouse/industrial feel.   To secure everything together,  I would nail in a similar set up to the back  screw diagram below (the 4th image)   Simple nail 2 nails per side piece, and 3 along the bottom repeat this process on both the front and back panel.  At this point your shelf is ready for finishes.  Skip ahead to step 4.

 

Step Three:

Screw it all together in this order:  Bottom to the sides, then to the front and finally attach the back.

 

Step Four:

Sand and Stain or Paint it!  (optional)

At this point with a hand sanding block, I knocked down the sharp edges.  I didn’t want anything razor sharp, and those mitered corners and pretty bad without sanding.  Once it was sanded, I decided just a simple edge painting would be perfect!    Since we have a raw pine ceiling in their room, we left most of the pine and just painted just the top edge and ledge edge a hot pink.  Just a fun touch of color!

 We found a stud in the wall and just screwed the shelf to the wall, using a level to make sure they weren’t crooked.  They are on there nice and tight!

 

 

Here are some more examples of how you could build these same shelves for a boys room or family room.

**  Thank you to Bosch for sponsoring this giveaway.  I received the drill set from Robert Bosch Tool Corporation to partner on this project and provide this giveaway to my readers.  All opinions are my own.