DIY Industrial Cart Bookcase

Hey friends!  I am THRILLED with how this latest build turned out!  Before I share it, I have to say… The whole thing cost me $100 to build.  That includes hardware.  Check out my new DIY Industrial Cart Bookcase!

How pretty is she? This piece is all about the hardware. Really you are taking a very basic build and a few boards and turning them into a piece of art by adding some awesome hardware. These corner brackets are a new fav!

 These are called  Rigid Tie™ RTA12 connectors.  

 I found them at Home Depot. They are from Simpson Strong Tie.

They are only $1.53 piece!  Yep… I love them even more!  Add 4 of them to your shopping list!  I’ll show you in a bit how to get them the color you want!

Let’s get started!  I will share the whole build with you below, and I will add a link to the free printable plans at the bottom of this post.

Before making any cuts or assembly, I painted all of my hardware a cool dark grey metallic color.  I used Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint in Flat Soft Iron.

I put one coat on my Simpson Strong-Tie connectors, the dowels, washers and hex screws.  While those were drying I started assembly on the bookshelf.

I made my cuts for the legs first.  These are just 2×4 studs.  Make sure to cut a very small piece off the end before making your measurements.  This gets the board square.

I made my cuts for those and all the cuts for each shelf.  The shelves use 2×12.  My saw will cut all the way through these with the slide, but yours may not.  You may need to make one pass and then flip the board over to finish the cut.

I assembled each shelf using wood glue and pocket holes with pocket hole screws.  I used my Kreg Jig for this part.  Each hole is 1.5″ and I used 2.5″ pocket hole screws to attach.

I built the 5 shelves and then attached the legs.

Before attaching the legs, you will need to make the cuts for your dowels.  Yes people!  Those are wood dowels!  They look just like metal bars, even in person.  It’s insane.  And cheap.  Woohoo.  You will want to clamp the two boards together to make sure your holes are exactly the same.

Once that was finished, I inserted the dowels and attached those boards first. You will almost make a ladder with your dowels like this…

These two will connect to the bookcase using wood glue and 2.5″ pocket hole screws.

Now for the front legs.  These are attached the same way.

Now, this will leave some unsightly pocket holes on the bottom of the shelves.  Because this is open shelving and visible, I filled these holes using stainable wood filler.  Just push some into each hole and then smooth it out.  You will want to lightly sand over each one after it dries before you stain.  It sounds like a lot of trouble, but it only took a few minutes to fill all of them, and the filler dries really fast.

Time for stain!  Oh I had fun on this one.  I actually combined three stains to create a very worn brown color.  It matches the pallet I have hanging on the wall almost exactly.  Here are the three I mixed.

Once the stain dried, I added the rest of the hardware.  I started with the washers and hex screws.

Then, I used these small screws to attach the Simpson Strong-Tie connectors.

You will see those are still silver.  I found this great paint at Michael’s.  It matches the spray paint almost exactly.  I dabbed some on each of the screws and I also used it touch up anywhere else that needed it.

The casters are metal casters that I also found at Home Depot.

That’s it!  Here she is all prettied up in my living room!

Ahhhh I love.  Hope you do too!

You can also download and print the FREE plans by clicking HERE!

Let us know if you have any questions at all!  Happy Building!