Homemade bookends ... ...

I've been meaning to make some bookends for a while now, not that we actually have any room on any of our book shelves, too many books, which reminds me I have to make some new book shelves.

I made them from ... ... yes you guessed it bits of pallets, offcuts from other jobs to be exact.


Here they are -

Complete with books.

Now apart from the artistic bit, which I cut out of odd bits of wood using my scroll saw, these are really easy to make, and you can use any shape you can cut out for the decorative bit, maybe letters or numbers if these are for a kids room, or a dinosaur shape maybe, you are only really limited by your imagination, and perhaps a few tools.

To make the main part of the bookends you need four bits of wood, which you basically stick together in 'L' shapes, and what you should get is something like the picture below.

All fixed and ready for the arty bits - 

I used some wood glue and small brass pins to fix them together.

I made mine about 6 inches in height, but you can go as big or small as you want, I guess it depends on the books you have.

For the rest of each bookend I marked out a piece of wood with a hand drawn design and then cut it out with my scroll saw, if you don't have a scroll saw you can also use a coping saw, but it will take much longer to cut out, although it has to be said that does depend on what sort of design you go for, mine might have been a little over complicated, but I never do things the easy way ... ... well not all the time.

The arty bits - 

Perhaps a little too fiddly, but I like them.

 

In case you aren't sure what a scroll saw or a coping saw is, have a look at the pictures below, a coping saw is a lot cheaper than a scroll saw, but harder work.

My scroll saw - 

It's a great tool to have.

My coping saw (well one of them anyway) - 

Works just as well, but will make your arm ache after a while.

Once you have your design all you need to do is fix it to the two 'L' shaped parts you've made, I used wood glue again, and there you have it, two simple to make bookends, I gave mine a good sand and then just polished them with our homemade beeswax and linseed oil polish, which you can read about here (opens in new window)

Here they are again, only a different way round - 

Not sure they look as good this way round though ?

What do you think ? long ways (like the above picture) or like the picture below ?

This is a simple make that anyone with even basic wood working knowledge can try, and it's also a good project to teach kids about wood working and using different types of tools.

Thanks for reading.