Thursday, July 15, 2010

A Book Table: Literally


Okay - one thing you all should know about me is that I am a bibliophile. I love books. When I decided to make this project. I challenged myself to go through the books I own to do it rather than go to a thrift store. I figured it would make my husband happy.

It is pretty cool to me to realize that everything I used for this project is stuff I had on hand and all the main components were from thrift stores. 

What You Need

Enough books to make the height of your table.
A checkerboard or some other piece of wood to use as the table surface.
Gorilla Glue
Stick glue
A drill along with drill bits for wood and hole cutters for wood
A Dremel
A threaded rod (mine came from a lamp but you can buy them at hardware stores as well).
Washers and nuts to fit the rod

Instructions

Drill holes through the middle of each book. The holes need to be wide enough for the rod to pass through easily but not too wide (the purpose of the rod is to help stabilize the stack).

Paper is messy and will bunch up. So after you drill through all the books you will find it necessary to go through and find where the pages buched up or burred and smooth them down using the Dremel.

Use the hole cutter to cut a wider hole in the bottom book just deep enough to accomodate the nut and washer. Do the same for the top book.

Practice stacking all the books on the rod. The books need to come to about half an inch above the top of the rod when you press down with all your weight.

At this point it is helpful to stack the books onto the rod and put some heavy weight on top of them (I used three paving stones I bought for a planter project) and let them rest for several days. This will help the book pages to compact together the way they were before you drilled them.

Take your stack apart one last time.

Use a glue stick to glue the pages of the top and bottom book together (so that they won't flop open - which they will do if you don't glue them because of the hole created for the nut and washers).

Build the stack one book at time using Gorilla Glue between each book until your stack is about half way up the rod. Stack the rest of the books on top of the stack without gluing and let the glue on the bottom books firm up.

Finish gluing the stack and add the nut and bolt to the top. Make sure it is tightened securely then add glue to the bottom of your table top and flip the stack over onto the table top. Add a few more weights to the top and then let the whole stack dry completely.

When it is all dry, you will have a neat little table.

I will be sharing this at::


Beyond The Picket Fence






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Decor Mamma

14 comments:

  1. Now that is what I call repurposing, nice work!

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  2. I love it and i love that you used the checkerboard on the top! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  3. This book table is just great, love the checker board for the table top! Thanks for linking up and I hope you have a chance to visit some of the other cool posts as they come in! Lezlee

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  4. Wonderfully resourceful art piece and functional too! It was honorable of you to sacrifice a few books to make your one of a kind table. Well done! Following along now at the Under $100 Party at Beyond The Picket Fence. Pam @ Sallygoodin

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  5. I kind of like this.. I love the checkerboard on top.. My own inner bibliophile is a little thrown by the drilling and gluing of the books!! It looks cool though ;)

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  6. Love this. It's a wonderful piece of art, let alone a table!

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  7. This is brilliant! Of course, I could only bring myself to use books that have been damaged on the inside. You know like the one my nephew took a crayon to, lol.

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  8. What a cute idea! LOVE the top you chose, too!

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  9. What a wonderful idea! I love the top you chose, too!

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  10. Love this! Our whole family are book freaks and this would be totally us. Even with the (gulp) book drilling, this is a neat project. Love the way it looks!

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  11. Brilliant,did it hurt to drill through your precious books. I would love if you would link up to my lush friday sometime. Thanks Andrea

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  12. Anonymous10:00 AM

    It's nice, but very sad that the books can't be read anymore!

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  13. why haven't i seen this? i look thru all those parties....this is genius. i love this. what a fun way to incorporate what you love into your decor, and in a new and functional way! amazing!

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  14. How cute is that!! There is always books at garage sales that won't hurt as much to drill through ,,,right?

    Feel free to stop by asouthernbellewithnorthernroots.blogspot and see info on an upcoming link party called Storytellers, starting Sept. 1.

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