DIY Rain Gutter Book Shelves

You know those absolutely genius projects you see all over Pinterest that you pin and tell yourself you are definitely going to tackle? And then a few days go by, a week goes by, a year goes by and you still haven't gathered a single supply for the project...

Yeah, I've got lots of those too! But today I'm proud to say I've tackled one of my most favorite Pinterest projects ever!

Rain Gutter Book Shelves! I found a tutorial on Pinterest from Raising Olives to be most helpful. I started off with a trip to Menards. Some days I'm so glad to have boys... they make great heavy lifters : )

Before we headed to the store I measured the space where I wanted the book shelves. I could easily fit two 5 foot shelves, one on top of the other. And conveniently for me, rain gutters come in 10 foot sections. I just love when projects are simple! I purchased one 10 foot K-Snap Vinyl Rain Gutter, two K-Snap Right End Caps, two K-Snap Left End Caps, and four K-Snap Gutter Brackets all in white. 

When we got home, my husband helped me cut the gutter in half and then left me to my own devices to get it installed. He may not be the most motivated DIY guy out there, but it sure has taught me to be pretty hand with a drill! Moral of the story... I installed this myself and so can you!

First I located the studs in my wall using my hand-dandy stud finder I also purchased from Menards that day. I screwed 2 gutter brackets per shelf directly into the studs, spaced about ((  inches)) apart. If you are making your shelves longer than 5 feet, you may want to add a third bracket to each shelf. 

The edge of the gutter easily slides onto the tip of the bracket, holding the gutter securely in place.

Once the shelves were up, I snapped an end cap onto both sides of each gutter. 

And that's all it took to install custom bookshelves in my boy's bedroom! I gathered the boy's favorite books and displayed them on their new shelves.

My favorite part about the rain gutter shelves is how little space they take up! I never could have fit a traditional book case here.

And since I screwed the shelves directly into the studs, they can hold quite a bit of weight. We usually have anywhere from 20 to 24 books displayed at a time! Even my rough and tough 3 year old hasn't managed to budge them!

Since the front of the books are displayed instead of the spines, my boys grab books to read a lot more often. I like to rotate the shelves with books from the current season or holiday to always give them something new to read!

I added some comfy pillows in the corner to give them a place to cuddle up together and read. 

Here you can see how perfectly the shelves fit in the small space between my son's bed and the wall. Our upstairs has a sort of strange layout since our bedrooms were renovated from an unused attic space.

Do you remember the Paper Airplane Mobile I made for the boy's room?

This is the view my boys have while drifting to sleep each night. I just love those little airplanes! (You can find the Paper Airplane Mobile tutorial HERE and the Lullaby Lyric Pillow tutorial HERE.)

Here's a Before & After photo to show you the progress so far:

I can't wait to show you what else we have in store for their room!