DIY Bookends with Organizers

I am really excited to share this project with you because this is my first ever wood project with lot of cutting involved but don't worry friends, I still do not own a wood saw or any fancy tools but I made this project successfully. I asked for our friend's help in cutting the wood as home depot cutting machine was out of order on that day when I purchased wood but usually Home Depot  does this cutting for you if you purchase the wood there.So, you can also do this project even if you don't own any fancy tools like me. C'mon that is the whole point , right? If I can do this, you can perfectly do this.If not , there is not point in sharing it here. :) If you don't have shops like "Home Depot" where you live, ask for some carpenter's help, I am sure they will be happy to help you.

To celebrate the back to school season, I thought this will be a perfect DIY which will help to organizer the books as well as school supplies. When I was searching for DIY bookends ,all the tutorials that showed up on the search were glue two woods in L shape and place some fancy things on either side and Tada! the bookends are ready. I wanted to do something different than that, so I thought "How cool will it be if the bookends has some organizers on them?". So I started making a model with cardboard and it turned out great .So I wanted it to be replicated in wood to add utility value to it. And here it is.Lets see how to make it.

Materials Required :
Wood plank with 1/4" thickness
Ruler and Pencil
Sand paper
Wood glue or any glue that can be applied to wood
Acrylic paint
Foam brush or paint brush
Any varnish or clear spray paint

Step 1: With a ruler and pencil mark the measurements on the wood.And cut the wood with help of carpenter or in Home Depot or by yourself if you have appropriate tools.
For L Shape -  4" X 7" - 4 pieces
1st Holder  -  2.5" X 3.5" - 4 pieces
1st holder - 2" X 3.5" - 4 pieces
To make a square holder, you need to subtract the thickness of the wood when making the pieces for two sides.So, "Holder" represents the front and back pieces and "holder" represents side pieces of the holder. It is 4 pieces because you will need 2 pieces for each side of the bookend to make one holder.
Hope it is clear.If not, ask me in the comments.;)
2nd Holder - 1.5" X 2" - 4 pieces
2nd holder - 1" X 2" - 4 pieces
3rd Holder - 1.5" X 1.25" - 4 pieces
3rd holder - 1" X 1.25" - 4 pieces

Step 2: Sand the edges of the cut wood pieces to remove any splinters on the edges.

With splinters

Without splinters after sanding

Step 3: Glue the pieces together. First glue the "L" Shape piece to make the bookends. I used some books to keep them in place and to match the height. As we are using glue it takes 5 or 10 minutes to set depending on the type of glue you are using. I tried E6000 as well as Loctite Go2 all purpose glue both works great. I felt Loctite is better than E6000 in certain cases but both does the job. I did not use any screws or staple gun in this project as I want this project to be DIYable for many of you who don't have tools.But if you want to reduce the wait time and have the appropriate tool , you can go ahead and use them to attach the pieces together.

For gluing the holder, first glue two "L" shape and let them dry and cure. Then glue both the "L" together to form the holder. These gluing and curing process may take a day or two.It depends on the time specified on the back of the glue package. 

I was trying with different arrangements and finally decided to go with left one.

Step 4: Once the pieces are glued. Paint them in the desired colors. I went with black for main "L" of the bookends and used three different colors for each holders (Teal, yellow and pink - isn't it matches my blog colors ;)) . I used 3 coats of acrylic paint for each holder and sprayed them with clear gloss paint.

Step 5: Once the paint is dry, glue the holders on to the bookends. And Voila !! Your gorgeous bookends are now ready to rock your shelves. I made the third holder intentionally small that I can only keep my erasers on one side and sharpener on the other because I used to put them along with the pens and other stuffs in a big holder and dig into the holder every time to find them .In order to avoid that I made a special place for them so they are easily accessible.(Problem of having only shelves as storage place.If you have drawers and small organizers this may seem to be a joke for you.But I promise somebody like me will surely appreciate the idea ;)).

More points :

• You can also use mod podge and scrapbook paper to decorate your bookends if you already have some pattern or theme going on in your room.
• Alter the size or arrangement of the holders according to the things you want to hold in it. 
• You can get more creative by using some magnetic tape on the bookends if you want to display some photo magnets or any logos. 
• Make sure you subtract the thickness of wood when you are cutting the pieces for sides if you are using a different thickness of wood.
• If you have the wood cutting tools at you home, why not try some other geometric shapes for holders like hexagon, triangle for holders instead squares. 

Hope this tutorial inspires you to create your own bookends for this back to school season. Share what you think about these bookends in the comments below. Have you made any bookends like this? If you want any customization to be done in this bookends what changes will you make ?