Inverted Bookshelf

The inverted bookshelf turns a bit of your living room upside down as it hangs all of the books from the bottom instead of supporting them from below. It's a satisfying optical trick and doesn't damage any of the books. In fact, you can take books in and out of it whenever you want.

Step 1: Materials

In addition to the basic materials for a shelf of wood and brackets, you will also need elastic webbing and a staple gun. The elastic that I'm using here can stretch beyond 200% of its original size and is certainly strong enough to hold the books here.

optional: glue gun

Step 2: Measure it out

The key things you need to figure out are how wide your books are and what length of elastic is good enough to support all of the books against the board without crushing them against it.

Measuring out my books, the average width was one inch and the ideal length of elastic turned out to be 14 inches.

Step 3: Staple the elastic to the board

Now that you have a length and a width, the next step is to staple gun two pieces of elastic down the middle of the board. I'm going to be suspending 12 books here, so I used just over 14 feet of material for each side.

Start each piece of elastic with the excess facing in. Staple this in place and fold the elastic back over to start running it down the board. Measure out 14 inches, staple it one inch farther and repeat until you get to the other end and fold the excess back inside again before stapling it.

Step 4: Insert books to test

I slid the books in and even the heaviest book was perfectly snug. It turned out that two straps was too much for the smaller books and started to compress them, so I only used the front strap and squished the other strap behind it.

Step 5: Add brackets and attach to wall

Now that you know that the shelf itself is stable, add a couple of brackets to the other side of the board. Then simply screw it into the wall.

Note: This was intended for a short term installation. To make it more permanent, I'd recommend hiding a couple L brackets on the underside.

Step 6: Sit back and enjoy

You can leave it as is or go for some more realism by gluing some toys, bookends, or even a fake drink to the bottom of the board to complete the look!

Comments

[trochee]

I just combined this Instrutable with another one, and it looks really cool.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Invisible-Book-Shelf/

I now have books hanging off a book with books stacked on top of it!

[trochee]

Here are pictures of my final product. I painted the invisible shelves with acrylic paint and a glue gun. Since the book's cardboard cover was easy to pierce with the staples, the project was easy as pie. I would recommend, when creating the invisible shelves, to screw through the outer cover, since the weight of the hanging books will just peel the cover down. I used an elastic band instead, but in hindsight it would be easier to use screws.

[cowscankill]

Wait... how did you paint an invisible shelf? I can't really tell what in the picture is painted...

[trochee]

lol

[Foaly7]

Awesome fusion of instructables (I call that type of project Fusibles), dude!

[bassclarinet23]

Awesome.

[Audio Solutions]

great job! i gotta try this lol

[Killergunman]

Double sided shelf books bottom nik nacks up top!

[Stupidy stu]

I love it.
You have just made my day.
for weeks now, my wife has been asking me for some Bookshelves.
Thank you.
She Will Go Nuts.

[BigBadgers2001]

This is just crazy and I love it.

[sg1570]

I like this creative idea

[goldenshuttle]

smart and cool. good job man

[Lil wenchie]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/20-insanely-creative-bookshelves?awesm=awe.sm_5I9aF%2F&utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=RHSocialMedia

I love this project and will definitely make one when I get my own place. Also, it's famous. See number 17

[Shujon]

Nice work there... what other things we can put upside down :D

[lemaisonbelle]

FYI - the Michael Chabon book in your photo is worth up to $600 if it's a first edition...or was...

[zebede5]

Little Brother is possible my favorite book of all time.

[wobbler]

I thought all the bookshelves in Australia were like this?

[nevertback]

lol

[sofiyyullah]

@ richelton -Nice one.How dou you get the hooks?

[Lohkee]

Your project kicks ASK!!!
That's awesome - and it'll make any guest think twice - LOVE IT!!!!

[agood3]

You get awesome points for having Little Brother on the Shelf. I'm reading that now!!!

[fungus amungus]

Thanks! That was a fun book to read. Did you know he's working on the sequel right now?

[fmachado1]

How did you hide elastic???

[Mr. D.]

Open the front cover, insert book, close front cover.

[Electronics Man]

AWSOME!

[R0y4L]

I was so amazed by this idea, I decided to make one too :) It looks awesome. This is my shelf :)

[sfurqan]

rubish idea

[fungus amungus]

Cool!

[fruitkid101]

I know this sounds completely un-knowing, like entry-level stuff, but where do I get elastic?

[sfurqan]

from ur pajama

[Murphys Laws]

Any fabric or craft store, Walmart, Fred Meyer... Even some grocery stores. Look in the sewing notions.

[Saturn V]

When in doubt, Google it!

[baustin]

You could probably add a couple bookends to this and use them to stabilize the shelf or even attach to the wall

[sugarfuss]

What I'd find really cool is to add the L brackets to the underside in general, just like a normal book shelf. Then place half of your books on the underside, just like you described it (which is totally awesome by the way) and then also place some books on the top, just like a normal book shelf. I think this would make the effect even better. and saves a lot of space if you have many books.

[cmartinez3]

I thought the exact same thing!

[project dude]

this is instructable gold!!!!

[Saturn V]

You can also combine that with the invisible bookshelf idea, and no one will be able to puzzle it out...Well, except for an Instructables member.

[budji3]

I agree!

[squante]

This is brilliant! It even gives you room to put stuff on top of it :D

[allthegoodnamesaretaken]

You get full points for Godel, Escher, Bach. One of my favorites.