Rain Gutter Bookshelves

What rock have I been hiding under? Have you ever heard of Rain Gutter Bookshelves? What a neat idea! I first discovered them while taking a peek at this amazing homeschool room (WOW! right?) and then found out that all of the really cool homeschoolers are doing it, so I'd better do it, too! (Oh, wait - that's public school "follow the masses" thinking - we don't do that here! Of course there's plenty of cool homeschoolers without rain gutter bookshelves, lol!)

The whole idea is that if children can see their books, they're more likely to read their books. Its hard for little ones to pick out their favorite books when they're lined up with their spines facing out on a bookshelf, especially since children's books are so thin. If they're on display with their fun and interesting covers facing outward, children are naturally more drawn to them. And they're easier for them to pick out as well as put away (a plus for me!).

Anyway, I showed it to Michael and he thought it was an interesting idea. We're going to put them up in the basement for our homeschool area, but as a practice run, we decided to try it in the boys' room first. Isaac has been wanting a place for his books - he has the top bunk of a bunkbed and it has no shelf. Nathan has a crate of board books next to his bed, but that tends to get tripped over and looks a bit cluttery, so he got one, too. Joel and Ezra both have built in shelves on their bunkbed, so they missed out on this project, but don't seem too hurt by it.

The first thing I did was google "how to install rain gutter bookshelves" and came across this great tutorial at Raising Olives. Seemed easy enough. Except that I seem to be under Murphy's Law when it comes to attempting projects.

First I went to Home Depot, but the one I went to didn't have vinyl gutters. So I brought home an aluminum one, but knew that just wasn't going to work. So I took that back and headed across the street to Lowes (are they always across the street from eachother? In my area they are, I guess for good competition. It certainly makes my life easier, anyway!). Both times with all of the kids in tow. It is no easy feat to push a cart, wear a baby, keep track of everyone and carry a 10 foot gutter without running into other shoppers, let me tell you. Thankfully, Lowes had everything I needed - beautiful vinyl gutters with little ridges down inside and all the brackets, screws, and end caps.

(Side note: I will say that I can't agree with others who have said this is an economical way to shelve books. Cute, artistic, inspiring, creative - yes. Economical, no. One gutter and the things I needed to make it into several shelves cost me right about $50. I can buy a 5 shelf bookshelf that holds many more books at Wal-Mart for $30. So they'll be going up a little at a time in the basement/homeschool room, as I would like to put up several, but can't afford to go and spend $200 on gutter stuff in one pop. The gutter itself is only $7. Its all the other stuff that adds up quickly.)

Anyway, back to my story. My first attempt at installing the gutters was horrible. The stud finder I bought was not doing a good job. It was telling me there were studs every 6-10 inches (they are supposed to be more like every 16-18"), and sometimes it would indicate a stud in one area, but then if I went over it again, it wouldn't. Very frustrating. Although when I let Michael play with it he was pleased to know that he is officially deemed "a stud", which I already knew anyway - I mean, I did marry him for a reason!


I finally thought I had pinpointed where the studs I needed to use were, and did my drilling and leveling and put up the gutter. And it was a huge flop! The screws came right out of the wall with just a little pressure. Apparently, I had NOT found the studs. I was so frustrated!

Not to mention at this point Judah was crying because he was sleepy, one child was hungry, one needed to go potty, one was trying to touch all of the tools... etc. So I took a break and took care of them, and almost decided to quit altogether.

However, after some frustrated mental fuming, I remembered I had a box of miscellaneous sheet rock anchors somewhere. I found them and used anchors in the studless holes, and the gutters went up and are solid as they can be! Hooray! The kids love them, and even Michael was impressed by how nice they look!

I will also add, once I figured out how to do the first one after all that struggle, the next two were super easy. So take my advice: go to Lowes, use sheetrock anchors, make sure babies are well rested and children are fed and occupied!

Here's the results:

I love how they have such a nice finished look to them! I can't wait to get them going in the homeschool room. We're in the process of painting right now in preparation. Then we'll move the rest of the furniture down there and I'll hopefully have finished pictures soon! School starts for us on Tuesday - 5 days to go!!