The Bookshelf Room
By Tessa Keath
Here is a brief explanation of how we built our built in bookshelves:
We used 1×8 boards for both the uprights and the shelves themselves. The uprights go from floor to ceiling. We then added small shelf height boards to support the shelves between the uprights. The shelves are fastened with 3” screws. We used L brackets to secure everything to the walls.
The shelves vary by book height from 9–11” and one 13” shelf as I really like the look of not a lot of space between the top of the books and the next shelf up. I also was able to get more shelves in this way. You could certainly just take the height of the wall and divide it to a number close to 11, which will accommodate most books.
Here’s a video that explains these elements:
Scroll down to see more pictures of our room along with quotes that have been inspiring to me!
March 23, 2024
“Children must have the Best Books.—One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child’s intellectual life.” (Vol. 2 p. 279)
@tessakeath
December 2, 2023
“To the fairy tale we must often look, if we are to mend our ways with the child and lead him forth to find that mighty world, that true self, which is the idea of him laid up in the heart of God.” (Greville MacDonald, The Parents’ Review, Vol. 65, p. 11)
@tessakeath
November 27, 2023
“It is helpful to remember that we don’t have to do everything or have everything. … Today we have so overcomplicated and stressed our lives, minds, and bodies with the ‘too much’ that we’ve lost a “pearl of great price’: the basics of wholesome everyday life at home. A balanced life.” (Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Family’s Sake)
@tessakeath
October 9, 2023
“To the true book-lover the mere possession of books is a joy. In the same way as a lover of China delights to gaze upon the treasures of his collection, so the book-lover revels in the enlightening atmosphere of his library.” (PR29, p. 485, Mrs. Pell)
@tessakeath
August 14, 2023
“Literature, art, music, all three can begin to be learned in the nursery. All three are a great possession, a possession for life. When the clouds of life drift about your children, these three will lead them through the mists to the mountain tops, and there they will find that the sun they had thought obscured is always shining in the Eternal Heavens.” (V. M. Hood, “Reading in the Nursery”, PR28, p. 532)
@tessakeath
July 31, 2023
“The peaceful home was the one where each member of the family was getting what he needed. What do people need? Let us think of that. There is a difference between what people want, what they would really like and what they really need. Certain things we all need, grown ups, children, everyone.” (Essex Cholmondeley, Parents Are Peacemakers)
@tessakeath
July 17, 2023
“Let us arm our children for the slings and arrows of later life by cultivating the spirit of innocent laughter. Let us give them something to laugh at, to laugh at without any suspicion of malice. Thus only do they learn the relative importance of events and how not to make mountains out of mole-hills. We cannot expect in them a subtle sense of humour, but we can fill their young lives with wholesome laughter, and Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling are always at hand to help us.” (Conyers Alston, “Children and Books,” PR37, p. 191)
@tessakeath
May 15, 2023
“So let us not be depressed and rudderless. Let the young mothers take fresh courage, knowing that as they sow so will they reap, and that no personal sacrifice is too great to ensure the friendships of our daughters. It is laid in the foundation of the earliest education, and the home atmosphere is the most important factor. And I would exhort those who know the precious gift of friendships to help other mothers and daughters to draw nearer to each other. Let us take for our motto: ‘We must all help each other in this world because it is a debt we owe each other.’” (Steinthal, “Friendship Between Mothers and Daughters”, PR16, p. 417)
@tessakeath
May 8, 2023
“No parent/home/child/teacher/school has an all-round 100 percent wholeness. We all have limitations and problems. But I must never think it is all or nothing.
Perhaps I’d like to live in the country, but I don’t. Well, maybe I can get the family to a park two times a week, and out to the country once every two weeks.
Maybe I have to send my child to a not-so-good school. Well, maybe we can read one or two good books together aloud. If you can’t give them everything, give them something.” (Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Children’s Sake, p. 156)
@tessakeath
December 31, 2022
“Children have always been lovely, so far back as that day when a little child in the streets of Jerusalem was picked up and set in the midst to show of what sort are the princes in the Kingdom to come.” (Vol. 2, p. 75)
@tessakeath