Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Upcycling bookends into a floating bookshelf



As you might have noticed, I love what Umbra is doing, in a previous post, I showed that you could make your own butterflies or wall flowers with soda cans.
Here I'd like to show that you can use a regular easy to find metallic bookend to make the now-famous floating bookshelf from Miron Lior sold by Umbra.


How to make it
You just have to use tin snip pliers to make 2 little notches and fold them with regular pliers. These little pieces of metal will be used to hold the back cover of the first book. The first book in this configuration will have to be thick enough to cover the piece of metal otherwise you can cut almost flush the whole piece of metal and make the same cutting and bending, in this case, any book will fit to start.


To attach on the wall, 2 hole using a drill and anchors on the dry walls will be needed.

I think it's funny that a bookend could also make a great floating bookshelf!

14 comments:

  1. Awesome post. I added it to a reuse roundup here: http://mfta.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/home-diy-projects/

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  2. I love this idea and was a day or two away from buying the Umbra version for my cookbooks - now I'd rather make them! Wondering though...do you think this homemade version would start to bend under the weight of the books?

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  3. My version works with 4 or 5 books like on the picture, if a bending is happenning you can try to compensate a little bit on the 90 degres angle you create when you make the holder. From what I know, the original version has also a weight limit and since the holder is hidden it's worth trying anyway! Let me know!

    Thanks for stopping by.

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  4. Go look at the umbro floating bookshelves it will show you all you need to know:

    http://www.casa.com/p/umbra-conceal-invisible-floating-large-bookshelf-309251?site=CA&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc_C&utm_term=UBR-344&utm_campaign=GoogleAW&CAWELAID=1309135203&utm_content=pla&adtype=pla&cagpspn=pla

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  5. Actually, this is kinda unclear as to where to make the cuts and what it looks like on the wall. Sorry, looked at the Umbra site listed above and I understand the concept, but can't seem to visualize the home made ones on this site. I can tell there's only one way you can mount them on the wall, but from there I'm a little lost. Would love to do this since my son gets into my books and would love to have them up where he can't.

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    Replies
    1. Ok, now that's I've looked at it for a bit I think I get it.

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  6. What a great idea! I've made so many things that serve as bookends I don't need my old metal bookends anymore. This is a great way to used them (and make more things to put on the shelves I can make).

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  7. To attach on the wall, 2 hole using a drill and anchors on the dry walls will be needed. ... fwallshelves.blogspot.com

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  8. Could you add a picture of it on the wall without books on it? Having a hard time visualizing.

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