A bookcase or shelf is an extremely useful home storage system. In this collection, you'll discover helpful project plans and learn building tips to maximize your bookcase or shelf's storing capacity.
12 Bookcase Projects for Better Storage and Functionality
Updated on May 20, 2025
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Floating Bookshelves
Strong, quick to build, no visible supports and made from only two parts! Floating shelves are handsome, easy to build and inexpensive. And they’re strong even though they have no visible supports. They appear to float on the wall, no clunky hardware or brackets. We made them from only two parts—half of a hollow core door and a 2×4.
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Build a Built-in Bookcase
No complex wood joints, no tricky techniques—simply glue, screw and nail the parts together. Use inexpensive materials like birch plywood and standard trim to build this classic, built-in wooden bookcase.
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DIY Box Shelves
Box shelves are inexpensive, easy to make and highly versatile. Make the combination of sizes and depths you need for any room, from the living room to the laundry. Box construction techniques are always the same. Here’s a look at the best-looking refurbished bookshelves to inspire you.
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Saturday Morning Shelf
This versatile cherry shelf goes together in a few hours, and with a quick-drying finish you can have it on the wall in a day. The extra-wide top makes it perfect for books, antiques and collectibles. Build it before lunch—spray on the finish after dinner.
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Install a Wall-Bed-Bookcase Combo
A wall-bed combination or drop-down bed helps save a lot of room in a tight basement, so consider installing this DIY Murphy bed and bookcase. It’s one of many great basement bedroom ideas. Further, a Murphy bed can be super simple: Some are just an upright box that contains a folddown bed. But this is a deluxe version because it includes ample storage.
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Classic Simple Bookcase
A veteran woodworker and a beginner team up to build a classic bookcase. Craftsman-style furniture designs are still popular today, and with modern tools you can build a bookcase like this classic from the Stickley catalog in a weekend.
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Build a Showcase Wall
This built-in entertainment center mixes architectural simplicity with a pop of color to make it stand out. Create this showstopper of a bookcase in your home.
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Small Room Ideas: Floor-to-Ceiling Bookcase
A floor-to-ceiling bookcase shows off a small room’s height while adding a lot of space-saving vertical storage.
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Custom Box Shelves
Organize the clutter. These simple, but handsome, box shelves will store books, hats, shoes, and all kinds of knick-knacks. You can even sit on them.
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Make Your Own Built-In Shelves
Use this project for built-in shelves to unlock hidden storage space between the studs in your walls. Install a single, open box of shelves, or install two boxes and add a set of glass doors to make a cabinet.
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Optimize Your Bookshelves
Bookcases look most balanced when they are filled 75 percent with books and 20 percent with decorative items, leaving 5 percent of empty space.
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Fix a Wobbly Bookcase
Stabilize a wobbly bookcase on carpet by providing solid floor support, installing adjustable feet or by anchoring it to the wall studs. A freestanding bookcase set on carpeting often wobbles and can even tip over. The problem usually occurs because carpet is held in place by tack strips placed along the perimeter of the room. You have a couple of options to solve this problem.
- 1. The first is to pull the carpet free of the tack strip, cut out a strip of padding where the front corners of the bookcase will sit, and replace the padding with a strip of wood that’s the same thickness as the tack strip, usually 1/4 to 3/8 in.
- 2. A second option is to install adjustable feet (called gliders: at home centers) on the corners of the bookcase. They’re simple to install—just drill a hole and insert the feet. You won’t have to mess with the carpet, but the feet may be noticeable, which you might not like.
