Who knew rain gutters could be so useful inside the house? We noticed a neat post on using them to wrangle computer wires on Unplugged a few weeks ago, and now this: using them to make really cool bookshelves on the wall.
Rain Gutter Bookshelves
Standard white rain gutters create this library effect. The photos come from mom Nicole's Flickr stream. If it looks a little school-like to you, it's because this "playroom" is also used as a school room. The children are home schooled. What a bright, and inspiring space.
Anyone else use rain gutters for a project recently?
Via Shawn and Frank.
Comments (7)
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Love it. Great idea. I'm a proponent of book shelves that display the fronts of books instead of the spines, especially for young kids.
And this is where I shamelessly plug the "book slings" for sale in my Etsy shop (sorry):
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5696551
view pennycarnival's profile
I love the orange walls! This is such a happy room.
view lisamfb's profile
Jim Trelease(The Guru of Reading Aloud) helped popularize this method:
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch7-pg3.html#raingutters
view maurao.'s profile
we recently used rain gutters for our craft room.
perfect for spools of ribbons, odds and ends and even as a tray for paintbrushes and cookie cutters and the like.
we love it!!
(and it was WAY cheaper than shelving!)
view laura sue's profile
That's our plan for the playroom. I'm also a big proponent of spines-facing-out book storage.
view ksg's profile
I got saw this idea on-line earlier this spring and then researched it on the Jim Trelease site mentioned above. The gutter shelves were very easy to install, and my 3 year-old loves it! The only hitch was that neither Home Depot nor Lowe's would cut the 10 ft. gutter pieces so my husband cut them down to 5 ft. pieces with a hacksaw. Even that step was easy though.
view KKCollins's profile
Jim Trelease was also where I first saw this idea. I was teaching at the time and wanted to put these up in my class but was not allowed. No worries- I just made portable bookcases instead! Here's a flickr photo of the two I made. http://www.flickr.com/photos/threebysea/3723005663/
I did miscalculate when cutting the one set of lumber, so the sets don't line up, however, no one ever seemed to notice. I received a ton of compliments on them and have since passed them along to another teacher now that I'm home with my son.
view ThreeBySea's profile