When I find clothes I like, I buy more of the same. Apparently this habit applies to furniture, too. This fall I built two cube bookcases for my 8 year old's bedroom. Last weekend, I built another, this time for my 6 year old. What can I say? The first two worked out so well I needed another!
For this bookcase, I had the lumber (at least the big boards, not the 1x2s) cut at Lowe's. The cuts were precise and square -- everything I want in a cut!
Just as I did with the first two bookcases, I used the Kreg Jig to put this one together and then I topped it with 1/4" MDF, attaching mitered cove molding underneath. At some point this winter I realized that my miter saw was out of square. I'm not good at fixing mechanical things, so my husband did me the favor of squaring the saw for me. Wow, what a difference! My cuts are so much more precise now that the saw is square again. Whew!
One change I made from the first two cube bookcases I built was in the finish. Instead of building and then finishing, I painted the surfaces that would end up on the inside of the bookcase before assembling the whole thing. Last time it was a bit of a nightmare getting into all the corners and inside tops of each cube. Painting the inside ahead of time was much simpler. Once the unit was put together, I sanded and painted the outside, touched up the inside, and then added two coats of poly to both the inside and the outside.
