Doorway to Bookshelf Transformation
The past month I have been completely absorbed in helping my sister open a maternity store in central Minnesota. As she renovated, the space she wanted my help the most with was the kids play area. I was tasked with changing a doorway that did not serve a purpose within the new layout. We decided a doorway to bookshelf transformation would be a clever solution!
This is the space amidst renovation. The doorway you see here leads to the utility room. Clearly we wanted this enclosed since there was a different utility room entrance my sister could use. We started by painting all the wainscoting and trim gloss white. We cleaned and primed it first, then applied two coats of paint.
When we were done with hours of painting, this is what the space looked like.
Installing Plywood
Next we cut our wood, starting with a large sheet of plywood to fit the back. We nailed this into the door casing from behind.
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I had help from my sister’s friends that were already working on other construction projects in the store. They graciously cut all the wood for me so I didn’t even have to use my table saw!
To attach shelves inside the doorway, I was planning to drill pocket holes with my Kreg jig and make them floating. However, in cutting the shelves we discerned the doorway was not square nor parallel. This made it more feasible to create a shelving method that would allow for wiggle room. Enter slats.
Installing Slats As Shelf Supports
We cut 1 inch wide slats and screwed them into the wood door casing with two screws. Each shelf measured 16″ apart.
This method is actually how I installed shelves to organize closets in my home, too.
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Next we set the shelves on top. We added little nails down through the shelf into the slats so that the shelf wouldn’t slide off or move. After touching up paint we were ready to style them!
Doorway to Bookshelf Transformation
The bookshelves look so great! I love this built-in look and how useful the storage space is now. As a whole the playroom rocks!
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Don’t forget to pin this idea!
Be sure to check out my sister’s maternity store online where they sell clothes and products for moms. Thanks for reading my doorway to bookshelf transformation and I will be back soon to show you what I’m building for my house!
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Hi Melissa! I’m looking to do something similar to this at my home and had a few questions:
1. Did you do just paint the shelves or did you put any additional finishing products on them?
2. What size screws did you use to attach the cleats?
3. How many / what size screws did you use to attach the shelves to the cleats?
Thanks!!
Hi Ben! I painted them with an all in one paint that has a top coat protected formulated in it. I screwed the cleats into the door jamb using #10 1 1/2″ screws. The shelves were simply nailed into the cleats from the top with two small brad nails on either side.
Hope that helps!
Melissa
What is the depth of your shelves and your original doorway?
I think it was 8 inches…can’t quite remember now though.
Love this idea & planning to do this on my utility room doorway as well! What did you do to the other side of the plywood?
I just painted it as well so it looked good from the other side. However, you could choose to drywall over it if preferred!