Today we’ll walk you through how we built the bookshelves in our son’s room. This is a straightforward project we’ve repeated in other spots—like our living room and a beach house pantry—and it’s a great way to add custom storage and style. These bedroom shelves were our first attempt, and we were really happy with how they turned out.
This guide focuses on building the top portion of the built-ins—the shelves themselves. We’ve written separate posts about creating the cabinet bases (an Ikea hack) and finishing everything with crown molding, but not every bookshelf needs those extras, so today we’re concentrating on the shelving portion.
You can also tour the finished room in its early version as a nursery and later after we updated it with a big-boy bed, if you want more context on how the shelves fit into the overall design.
Table of Contents
Tools & Materials To Build A Bookshelf
Below are the supplies and tools you’ll typically need. If you don’t own a table saw or circular saw, consider renting one or having a home improvement store make the primary rip cuts for you. Cutting accurately matters for a clean result.
- 1/2″ MDF or plywood for the shelves
- 1×3 pine (ripped in half) for shelf support strips
- 1×2 pine for the face trim
- 1×4 or 1×6 pine for a top brace
- Measuring tape
- Stud finder
- 24″ level
- Clamps
- Nail gun with finish nails (or hammer and finish nails)
- Miter saw
- Table saw or circular saw
- Power drill/driver
- Wood glue
- Paintable caulk
- Primer and paint
- Painting supplies (roller, brushes, drop cloths)
How much wood you need depends on your bookshelf dimensions, so the planning step below is important to estimate materials and avoid waste.
Step 1: Plan Your Build
Measure your space carefully and sketch the bookshelf on paper. Decide how wide and tall each shelf will be and how many shelves you want. Planning helps you work out how to best use a 4×8 sheet of plywood or MDF and prevents unnecessary trips to the store. For a painted finish, MDF gives a smoother result; plywood shows subtle wood grain, which can look nice depending on the style you want.
Step 2: Cut Your Shelf Pieces
Cut your plywood or MDF into shelf boards and the tall side panels. A table saw yields the cleanest cuts, but a circular saw works fine if you set a straight edge guide. If you’re having the store rip the sheet for you, bring your sketch so they can cut accurate, consistent strips. When cutting at home, clamp multiple boards together and cut at once to make matching pieces more reliable.
Step 3: Prime & Paint Your Shelves
It’s much easier to prime and paint large panels before installation. Laying boards flat and rolling gives a more even finish and is faster than doing everything in place. Prime raw MDF or plywood first; then apply your chosen top coat. We used a soft gray for this project, but pick a color that suits your room.
Step 4: Build Your Bookshelf Frame
With the paint fully dry, begin by securing one tall side panel to the wall using screws into studs. Countersink the screws so you can fill and touch up later. For the opposite side that doesn’t hit studs, install a hidden top brace (a ripped 1×3 screwed into studs) behind the shelf area to provide a strong anchoring point for that panel. This brace won’t be visible once the shelves are in place.
We also added a front brace across the top of the bookcase to keep everything square while assembling. Temporary spacer pieces at the base help maintain alignment during installation; these can match the eventual shelf depths and are later removed or painted over.
Step 5: Add Your Shelves
Decide your shelf spacing before fastening supports. We used painter’s tape to visualize options and settled on evenly spaced 10″ gaps with a bit more space at the bottom. Remember to account for the thickness of the shelf boards in your measurements. Cut thin support strips by ripping a 1×3 into roughly 3/4″ pieces; these sit under the shelf on three sides and remain mostly hidden behind the face trim.
Nail the support strips to the side panels and into the wall, keeping everything level. Then add screws into studs and into the side panels for a secure, long-lasting connection. Slide the painted shelf boards into position and secure them to the supports so they won’t shift.
Step 6: Finish With Face Pieces
Cover the exposed shelf fronts with 1×2 pine trim—primed and painted—to hide raw edges and make the shelves look thicker. This trim gives the bookcase a polished, built-in appearance and conceals the support strips beneath.
At this stage you can also touch up paint on the back wall and any braces so everything looks cohesive before final caulking.
Step 7: Caulk & Touch-Up Paint
Caulk all seams where two surfaces meet: shelf to wall, shelf to support, and trim joints. Fill nail holes and gaps, let the caulk dry, then do small touch-up paint passes over filled areas. These quick fixes make a big difference in the finished look and are much faster than repainting whole pieces after assembly.
Step 8: Add Crown Molding (Optional)
If you want a more built-in, finished look, add crown molding across the top of the bookcases and tie it into the room’s crown molding. One approach we like is to add a strip of baseboard or blocking first to make the crown appear beefier; then install the crown on top for a substantial profile. This step is optional but creates a custom, high-end appearance.
These shelves were inexpensive to build—around $60 apiece, including the bases—and they provide practical storage and a charming display area in the room.
If you want more shelving inspiration, we’ve compiled a roundup of many DIY shelf ideas and demonstrated similar techniques when building pantry shelving. These projects use comparable framing and finishing methods, so once you’ve built one set of shelves, you’ll have the skills to tackle more.
More DIY Shelving Projects
P.S. We often get asked where items in our house came from, so we keep a list of the paint colors and products we use.
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