Need advice on custom bookshelfs

[Armymanis]

Where do you guys go to get your custom bookshelfs done? I was hoping to get a custom bookshelf done to house video games. I want there to be at least 5 shelfs and have it be really wide. I can get the dimensions if needed.

Does anyone have any good websites or would anyone be willing to do this for me who is a great craftsman? I live in washington state and if I could get it shipped to my house then that would be great.

I've been researching websites and cannot find anything. Also, I am not going to do the work myself because I am not a very good builder.

Any suggestions is always helpful

[Yancakes]

Even if you're not a skilled craftsman, shelves can be about the easiest thing on the planet to build. I consider myself quite inept when it comes to woodworking, but since it's all working of stencils and doesn't require anything more complicated than cutting wood to size and drilling it together.

That being said, if you lack a tablesaw or something that ensures a straight cut, then yeah, find someone else to build it for you

Regardless of whether you build it yourself or get someone else to do it, if it's a really big shelf I highly recommend making a leaning unit. It sounds silly, but a unit that is about 20% wider at the bottom than at the top (and thus leans against the wall) adds a tonne of stability to a large unit and makes it easier to view the spines of games on the lower shelves. This is what I use for my movies (of which I have ~500 or so- damn I need to prune some of those).

They start to get pretty heavy that way, though.

[Michi]

My dad and I put some shelves together for the spare bedroom last year. I measured and designed and he helped me put them together, because God knows I would have probably cut my finger off if I'd used the table saw.

Before:


After:

Pardon the mess. We were still in the process of organizing.

It really wasn't all that hard. Ours were probably harder than most because we had windows we had to work around, but as long as you measure the space you want to put it in and buy enough (straight) wood and good screws, some simple rectangular shelves would be a lot easier. If you have a friend with a table saw see if you can get them to help you, and remember, measure twice, cut once.

[Ziggy]

I might be biased because I love working with wood, but I agree, a shelf would be pretty easy to make. The hardest part would be measuring, so if you can do that, then I think it's safe to say you can build a shelf. If you don't have any saws, there's lots of places that rent out tools (like Home Depot). For what you're doing, I would rent a chop box (assuming you don't have work horses and clamps to use with a circular saw). But I wouldn't use a table saw.

You don't have a buddy that can help you build it? It would be so much cheaper than to have some one build it for you and ship it. It's not a lot of material, but labor and shipping would be harsh.

I've been meaning to build myself a new shelf, actually. But like all the other projects I wanna do, I just need to find the time! If I ever get around to doing it though, I'll be sure to take pictures of the process and write up a little guide.