I recently made this shelf after rearranging my room to fit some other bookshelves and feeling that I would like to have some more room to store my stuff. It is now sitting in its place on my messy desk and I quite like how it turned out. If you want to make something like this then you would just have to alter the measurements. This was my first project like this and I couldn't have done it without my dad. I am making this Instructable after making the shelf so sorry for the lack of photos or drawings.

Step 1: Planning

For my shelf I had to do a bit of planning to make sure it looked the best it possibly could. One aspect I had to factor in was that there was a light above it and if I made it to high then it would block the light from my desk and make it harder to see. I also had a budget so I had to work with what I had. If you are also on a tight budget then there is almost always free wood that you can find on gumtree or if it is hard rubbish you should be able to find some somewhere. I just had to buy the backboard. With that in mind I made a list of all the wood I had and the sizes and worked out how big I wanted it.

Step 2: Designing

Next, I drew up a basic design and worked out what wood I would use where. After that, I started adding more detail to it and worked out exactly how it would all work and fit together. Slowly through a quite a few drawings and with the help of my dad the final product was produced. It involved lots if intricate joins, cuts and connections and a lot of time and thought had been put into the finite details. Now all I had to do was make it.

Step 3: Building

The last step was to measure out all the pieces and cut them to size. I used an electric circular wood saw but you could just use a regular saw for most of it although some parts might be a bit tricky. After a long while of cutting I put all the pieces together with tape (facing up) and realized that some of the pieces weren't exactly correct. I then had to keep refining them until they all fit together nicely. Next I used wood glue, nails and screws to put it together. Finally! It was done... almost. The last part was fairly easy. I brought it inside, put it on my desk and used some small thin pieces of wood to secure each side to the desk. NOW it was done. I am pleased with the end result and am happy to have more storage space.

Step 4: Trouble-shooting

If you are having any problems with making your own shelf and want a solution or want to see what problems I had then, well, here you go.

My first problem was not having as much wood as I would have wanted. When planning I had to try and reduce the amount of wood I used while still making it strong.

My second problem was not having the right types of wood. the wood my sides are made out of is very easy to split when you put a nail through it so I had to work around that when designing.