I have been waiting and waiting to create these book shelves in Teddy’s room! I really felt like we had to own our house before I went this crazy with drilling into a wall, but if you’re renting (and brave!) you could do it on a smaller scale and patch the wall afterwards.
Teddy, the lucky little guy, was gifted lots and lots of books before he was even born. At my baby shower, my bestie’s organised for my friends and family to bring their favourite baby book as their gift. Thanks to my incredibly generous pals, Teddy ended up with his own very impressive library from day one.
As a total and complete bookworm myself, I have been stinging to make a wall out of his colourful collection.
I used the IKEA Children’s Flisat shelves (19.95 each) which come in a raw wood. They’re nice and sturdy and easy to put together.
I then painted them the same white as the wall and I’ve seen this done where they’ve been painted to match coloured walls, and it looks incredible.
In hindsight, I think it might have been easier to spray them instead of paint. Either way it was a little fiddly but not too time consuming and they dried nice and fast.
A handyman installed them in rows across the wall (I’m not confident in my drilling skills and you DEFINITELY want them nice and straight!). In a dream world I would have them reaching up to the ceiling with a cute ladder, but that’s not entirely practical for a 4 year olds room so I started with three rows of five. Of course, I couldn’t resist colour blocking and we make a bit of a game of putting them away in their shades, or choosing a colour to read at night.
While each individual shelf is inexpensive, in a group like this you’re spending around $300 which is pricey for a kids book shelf. However when you want something that takes up this much space, it will end up costing $$$.
Another option for those who don’t want to DIY, the Pottery Barn Maddison 4-Shelf Bookrack could give you a similar effect. If you placed them side-by-side they would look gorgeous on a big wall, however at $149.25 (currently on sale*Jan 15, 2019*) even having two is going to cost you the $300 with less spacial impact.
No matter whether you choose big, small or somewhere in between, books are so magical. And with the gorgeous covers you find these days, it seems a shame to only display the spines! Let those books sing and double as wall art in your kids rooms.
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