QuintinSmits.com

My girlfriend and I have wanted a bookcase for a while now, but we never could find something we really liked. Because I've started woodworking a few months back, I decided to try and build my own:

This was quite a project, I've been working on it on and off for 2 weeks, mostly during weekends and on days off (there were a lot of those, the past two weeks...). I think the total amount of time I spend on this project is about 48 hours, give or take. Most of that time went into sanding the bevelled edges of the back-panels. If I'm ever going to work on a project like this again, I might go and buy a tool specifically for this purpose, that might take the time spent down to 30 hours, maybe even less. A picture of the finished product (no books yet, the laquer was still drying when this picture was taken):

We're talking about the top half, the bottom half was made earlier. Also, the coloring of the wood will be the same as the wood of the bottom cabinet, as soon as the laquer has had time to dry.

See the light patch in the bottom left of the next picture?

That is what the floor in our hallway usually looks like. The brown stuff is sawdust from my table saw. I used this for the bevel-edges on the back panels of the bookcase, as you can see in another picture.

A pic of how some of the shelves are lined up in the center of the case (not entirely correct...) and the bevel edges of the back panels:

Most of the shelves are lined up correctly, though. This actually seems to be the only mayor fuckup in this piece of furniture. I must be getting better at this!

And to finish off a pic of how the other side of the shelves are connected to the sides of the bookcase:

Perhaps I could have used nicer wood, but the wood for this whole cabined (including the bottom "half" with the sliding doors) already totaled about € 450,-. Add to that the glue and two cans of laquer (water based polyuretane called "Glitsa") and we get a custom, handmade bookcase for just over € 500,-.

I'm not counting hours, of course, this is a hobby project. I do, however, now understand why furniture can be so expensive. If I was going to take my hours and tools into account, the price of this case would be nearer to € 2000,-.  

The room feels completely transformed now that the bookcase is in its place. The ceiling appears to be much higher and the rooms just feels bigger. I wasn't aiming for this, but it certainly is a nice side-effect.