Gutter Bookshelves for Kids

Our Little Girl has a lot of books. We originally had a little corner in the dining room for them all (which is nicely attached to our living room, giving her more play space) with a regular bookshelf. However, the bookshelf was a little uneven on our wood floors and we couldn't anchor it to the wall. This worried me a little bit because little kids love to climb up things and I didn't want her getting hurt.

We thought of doing regular shelves that attach to the wall but then they would stick out really far and we would need bookends to keep her books on them. It just wasn't ideal for us. After some pinteresting, we came across bookshelves made out of gutters. We actually had picked up some gutters at Menard's a while ago when they were free after rebate so really, this project didn't cost us any money! We simply cut them to our desired length and screwed them into the wall (in studs of course). You can sand the edges smooth if you want but ours didn't seem that rough. Some people also add crown molding or end caps to theirs and we may add this later to make them more sturdy but for now, they work just fine.

I apologize for the bad lighting but you get the idea. The books face outward and the kids can easily pull them off the shelf. I will admit for now, Little Girl can only reach the bottom shelf but she knows to ask for books she wants on higher ones. This is also an easy way to rotate through her books so I don't have to read Moo Baa La La La to her every single day! (For those of you that know this book, you know how annoying it is. I think I've had it memorized since my third time reading it).

We also picked up a Winnie the Pooh floor puzzle at Goodwill for a dollar and made the whole corner her toy corner. Of course, it doesn't usually look this nice but it is really easy to clean up, since everything has a home. Little Girl even helps sometimes (or just pulls out all the books you are putting back on the shelf). I will also mention that to keep library books from getting mixed in with the regular books (and lost forever), we put them in the little red basket on the floor. Then when we put them away each night or have to return them, it is easy to find them again.