Adding Bookcase Legs

One long 2 inch by 2 inch painted piece gives this bookcase some height. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Adding Bookcase Legs

You see them all over home decor, home remodeling sites and home renovation shows, special mud rooms with room to hang coats, store boots and maybe even do crafts. They usually include cubby holes and bins to store backpacks and other items, either in a dark grey or white finish.

This is one of those white pre-fabricated cabinets that can easily provide shelving and storage. These pre-fabricated cabinets are delicate so they can’t hold much weight, such as books, but they do make nice little storage bins.

This small bookcase was left over from re-organizing a closet. Although not impressive as a stand alone piece of furniture, I easily updated the piece by simply adding legs. The legs were made from 2-inch by 2’inch pieces I cut the length of the book case and glued along the ridge on the inside edge of the bookcase..

Titebond III wood glue is excellent for bee hives as well as home wood projects!

I can’t use nails or screws because the particle board sides and shelves will splinter under the pressure of using nails and screws. Glueing on the legs, however, was easy.

I used the piece of wood along the full edge of the book case to cut down on the number of cat toys that get kicked under the piece.

You can also paint the are that looses the covering strip. It will take a couple of coats of paint; this is the first one. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

See the little missing piece bottom right? This is easy to fix with a few coats of a good paint. Here I have only applied the first layer to test whether the particle board will absorb it.

So here is the book case with legs sitting next to my front door giving me a tiny mudroom-like storage space.

The book case is now a little mudroom by my front door. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There is a closet to the left of the front door so this little storage unit helps to expand the front area into a pseudo mud room. The little bookcase now looks more like a free standing furniture piece and I have the necessities I need close to my front door: fish food; a botanical reference book; muslin kitchen towels, my crocs and the blanket for the front porch sofa when temperatures turn cool.

I have added a couple more layers of paint to seal that one spot on the right and, you will be happy to know, the cats stood by carefully watching me. As soon as the bookcase was back in place, they volunteered to test the new legs with their soccer games. So far, only one toy made it through the goal.

One more addition; a glass top to protect it from heavy use. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I also added a quarter inch piece of glass to the top to protect it from heavy use. I tend to drop baskets full of items on it, sometimes towels and plants I want to bring inside. For about $15, the top is now protected and becomes yet another place I can use.

I would say this little hack turned out quite well, wouldn’t you?

Charlotte