Building Pocket Shelves

Mike built these two pocket shelves to break in his new kreg jig and warm up to the much bigger building challenge of the bookcase wall. We got the general how-to plans from the blog Young House Love, but we changed the size to suit our needs and the materials to MDF since we had that leftover from the bookcase cuts.

Mike cut down the pieces with the circular saw - a bottom, front, back and two small side pieces for each shelf. He primed and painted everything before putting it together - it’s so much easier to hit everything with a roller when it’s flat. We chose white to match the bookcase (instead of a dark stain) to bring more balance to the room. Then Mike used the kreg jig (a most handy device!) to drill pocket holes and assemble the pieces. While the holes were hidden inside the pocket of the pocket shelf, we decided to take the project one step further and fill in the pocket holes and paint the patches for a more finished look. This is a step we also have to do on the bookshelf, so it was good practice.

We’re not going to hang the pocket shelves or anything else on the wall until the bookcase is built. The pieces are so large and the room is so small, we want to avoid potential accidents that could ruin Mike’s hard work.