Hello all!
Well, we’ve had QUITE the last two weeks getting settled in our new home in California! The biggest challenge was trying to fit the furniture and belongs we previously had in a small two bedroom home into a single master suite and 1/3 of a kitchen!
After adding a few shelves, getting rid of a few more things, and lots of organizing, we’re finally all unpacked!
The last thing we unpacked were my beloved books. I’ve been collecting all my favorites since I was a child, and I have over 400 beautiful, beautiful books now.
Only problem was—we ran out of room for shelves!! So what did we do? Built them!! And they turned out great!!!
They hang right across from our bed, so every morning, I can wake up and see all their lovely colored spines and titles.
My grandfather actually built the little white shelf underneath, there, to house my mother’s books and records when she was a child. :) Now, it houses our pens and pencils, notebooks and paper.
Building the Shelves
The design for the shelves was inspired by our friends Dr. Matthew Accurso, and his lovely wife Lauren. Here’s a picture I took of their shelves to help us design ours.
Materials
Steps
(1) Measure how long you want your bookshelves to be, then cut the boards to size.
(2) Cut 2 side edge pieces for each board.
(3) Cut front pieces for each board by measuring the length of the boards PLUS 1.5 inches.
(4) Cut a 3 inch stabilizing piece for every 2 feet of board.
(5) Sand everything until a fine powder rises from the wood.
(6) Dust off all the wood powder, and put on the first layer of wood stain. Be sure to paint in a well-ventilated area away from pollen or dust.
(7) Allow to dry for at least 6 hours, more if it’s wet or cold where you live.
(8) Put on a second coat of stain. Dry for at least 6 hours.
(9) Nail the edge pieces onto the end of each board. Then nail on the front pieces. The front pieces should cover the edge pieces on each side of the board. There is no back piece. The shelf will be a total of 10 inches deep when you have nailed on the front piece.
(10) Locate the studs in your wall, and place a screw hook into each stud where the shelves are going to go.
(11) Screw the stabilizing pieces into the studs in your wall under the hooks—however tall you want your shelves to be is how far apart you should place the stabilizing pieces from the hooks.
(11) Screw eye hooks into the boards to correspond with the hooks in the wall.
(12) To measure the cable, we’ll use the pythagorean theorem of geometry. First, measure the distance between the height of the hook and the top of the board (a). Then measure the distance between the screw hook and the wall (b). Then use a2 + b2 = c2 to find (c). Add 6 inches to the value of (c) for the loops and allow for adjustments. Our cable ended up measuring at roughly 19 inches a piece.
(13) Secure the cable to the screw eyes using the cable clips, and create another secure loop that will go over the hooks in the wall.
(14) Using yourself and a friend, lift the boards onto the stabilizing pieces and slip the loops over the wall hooks.
(15) Tighten the cable as needed.
(16) Done!
My Treasured Library
These are some of my favorite books that I’m always telling people about. I say that about all of my books, I guess, but these are books that talk about the things I’m really passionate about!
My reviews
“Gut and Psychology Syndrome” talks about healing leaky gut syndrome naturally. Leaky gut can cause a number of symptoms, including autoimmune issues, food sensitivities, arthritis, eczema, hives, and chromic fatigue. Conversely, healing leaky gut can reverse autism, dyspraxia, ADD, dyslexia, ADHD, depression, and even schizophrenia! Definitely worth a read if you’re dealing with seemingly unresolvable health issues.
“Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” is written by Weston A. Price. You might have heard of him! ;) It chronicles his journey around the world as he studied indigenous cultures and the importance of traditional food in the human diet.
“Cure Tooth Decay” is another big one! Did you know that dentists aren’t actually taught the true cause of tooth decay? That’s why they don’t know how to fix it! They only drill and fill, but they never go to the root of the problem: nutrition! You can improve your dental health just by adding a few things to your diet. This book is a must have!
“Real Food for Mother and Baby” is the top book I recommend for women trying to get pregnant, women who ARE pregnant, and for mothers. Nutrition is critical for growing strong, healthy kids. This book will give you the tools you need to do that.
“Folks, This Ain’t Normal” is written by Joel Salatin, orator, writer, and farmer. In this book, Joel talks about how the food industry has changed and the steps we need to take to get back to truly sustainable agriculture.
“Free-Range Kids” touches on the subject of letting our kids roam the neighborhood and walk home from school like they used to. It aims to take away the fear of letting your kids out from under your sight with logic, statistics, and psychology. Our culture has bred fear into us of rapes and kidnappings and abuse. Take back your power as a parent, and remain vigilant and protective, but not fearful.
“Taking Charge of Your Fertility” should be a required read for all women. This book changed my life, and I have so much to say about it, that I wrote another post! Read more HERE. (Seriously, if you’re a woman, don’t miss this!!)
“A Child is Born” has fascinated me since I WAS a child! This book contains incredible pictures of actual human embryos and human fetuses in brilliant color!
Anything by Ina May Gaskin is amazing. She’s an expert in all things birth, and her books should be required reading for all expectant mothers: “Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding” – “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth”
“How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby” So, I don’t get all caught up in the whole “is it morally right to plan the sex of your child” thing. But if you want to read a really interesting book about how certain factors can increase your chances of conceiving a boy or a girl (it’s not really chance!), then this is the book.
“Beautiful Babies” is written by Kristen Michaelis, also known for her blog “Food Renegade.” Kristen details many of the things you need to know to have a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby. It was a #1 bestseller on Amazon upon its release. Definitely worth a read!
The Little House series are also some of my absolute favorites. They were among the first books my mother read to me as a child, and I think of these stories all the time and how they apply to my everyday life! The people in these books were SO smart and SO knowledgeable about the world around them. Everyone should read these books to their children. I truly believe they will be better people for having read these books.
Also pictured is my new book “Well-Adjusted Babies“!!!! I just got it, and I’m reading through it!! SO GOOD! It talks about chiropractic and nutrition and birth. Everything I’m interested in! :)
Also among my favorites: “The Kite Runner,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Sarah’s Key,” “The Hiding Place,” “Hamlet,” “Jane Eyre,” The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, “Wild at Heart” and “Captivating“.
I’m not going to list the rest, but I love all of these, and you can buy them pretty cheap on Amazon.
I used to have a library that would rival yours, many hundreds of books, many many…. but I’ve slowly gotten rid of them. My reasoning is that I got tired of moving them, they’re a dust collector and I wanted less clutter in my house when I started having children. I moved to an earthquakey place and oh I didn’t want to ever worry about books falling on a child, and moving them. I’ve moved them too many times. So I donated them all, except about 50ish, not including the children’s books. I have (ahem, 3) kindles and I have about 100 books on there now. Heh… I figure if I ever need to reference something I had, there is always a library or I can buy it digitally. It was really really hard letting them go, but now there is so much less visual clutter, and it makes me happy. Then we moved again, so I was really happy to not have to move all of those books again.
I think honestly once children come, and you’ll see, things change. Things you didn’t expect. I was sure I’d keep my books forever, and now, it matters very little to me. Not having them doesn’t mean I don’t have the knowledge or the access to it.
So many of these books are ones that I hope my children will read someday. I have classics and fiction and non-fiction, Ronald Dahl, Jane Eyre, Where the Red Fern Grows…So many! I’ve known I wanted to homeschool since I was 8 years old, and that’s when I started diligently building my library with the ones worth keeping. Of course, I had no idea Kindles would exist when I grew up! I love them all so much. I’d like to think I’ll keep them forever. :) My mom still has books from when she was a kid.
Aw, I love the Little House series! I have them in my collection too. The Anne of Green Gables series is pretty great too.
Another great pregnancy/kid nutrition book is the Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care. I think it only came out this year or last. I very much enjoyed reading it.I would also highly recommend Deep Nutrition by Cate Shanahan.
Another two of my favorite reads from last year were French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon and Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman. Both books are by non-French women raising their children in France. It’s very different than the child-centric helicopter parenting practiced in North America. Both were very enjoyable reads!
I love the design of these shelves! I just moved into a new place and I may be copying you with that project soon.
Oh, and Ender’s Game is one of my favorites. I am very much a book lover, though I have finally donated most of my collection after so many moves. I have some of the same books, but I had gave my copy of Real Food for Mother and Baby to my sis-in-law. It seemed to have mixed reviews in the Weston A. Price community, but I loved it because it made real/traditional food seem so much more approachable for the average person.
I just got pregnant and am so excited to read some of your book suggestions! Thanks for sharing! I just reserved Real Food for Mother and Baby at the library.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Roald Dahl, Frank Peretti, and Ina May Gaskin: You’ve got all the greats covered! Your bookshelves look surprisingly similar to mine; a full list would be great so that I could expand my own reading pleasure. Have you read any Beverly Lewis or the Anne Of Green Gables series? I highly recommend. You might also like the Earth’s Children series….I could go on, but I’ll just go back over your pictures with a magnifying glass.
wow the books and shelves look amazing! (good placement too btw)did you stain some more to have when you expand haha
Thanks, Faye! We still have half a can of stain, so if we need to expand, we can. :) Still, we’re running out of wall space, too! All we have is furniture, clothes, and books, but they take up a lot of space. Haha.