Bookcase From Spare Parts

Submitted to Community Chat

I recently built a work table for my garage shop (visible behind the unpainted bookcase).  Leftover from that project was a 21" by 96" piece of baltic birch plywood.

In the spur of the moment I designed this bookcase to house all my magazine holders full of woodworking magazines.

The finish is brushed on Rustoleum black paint.  I threw the can away a week before finding out about this site, so I don't know exactly which SKU it was.

The decorative arches at the top were cut from a scrap piece of Poplar.  The bottom trim was leftover from a bedroom project.  I chose paint because of all the different woods in the piece.

Back to the arches.   I'm pleased with how they turned out.  All I did was use a compass to divide the width of the top into fourths.  The center arch is 2/4ths (half) the width, leaving the other two at 1/4th the width each.  The height of the arch was dictated by defects in the piece of Poplar and, of course, the need for an arc that would cover the distance between the points.  The small reverse curves that join the arches was provided by the base of my pencil sharpener.