Tree Bookshelf

I’ve been seeing a lot of sculptural tree bookcases in design magazines and blogs, from the very modern to the beautifully handcrafted. Unfortunately, they’re all either expensive or require extensive carpentry skills. So I put on my thinking cap, consulted with the team at Home & Family, and came up with this. Softly modern, inexpensive to make, and requires only basic crafting skills!

MATERIALS

2 - 4’x6’ sheets of plywood

1”x6” pine boards

Paint

Jigsaw

Screw gun and screws

Wood glue

Nail gun (optional)

STEPS

Draw out your tree shape on the plywood. The best way to do this is to create a stick figure tree using a ruler and yardstick.

Once you’re happy with your stick figure, go back and draw lines around your single lines creating tapered branches. Then go back and add little off shoot branches if you’d like.

Cut the tree out with the jigsaw and use the tree as a pattern to trace and cut a second identical tree. Paint both trees.

Measure and cut a piece of the 1”x6” to fit down the center of the tree as the trunk. Now measure and cut each branch the same way.The branches don’t need to be cut at an angle but can just butt up to the trunk piece.Use wood glue and then a nail gun or small screws to screw up through the tree into the shelving.