DIY Bookends

Bookends

I realized that my desk gets messy with all my small notebooks all over the place. I'm not sure why I do this but I use small notebooks for notes, drawings and random stuff I look up.  I tend to use more than one book when I think one would suffice. Instead of having them pile up all over the place I figured I should make a small area for my notebooks to stand up. The size of the books are A5 and a bit larger so I don't really need that big of bookends.

I didn't want to spend money this time around, so I looked around my apartment to see what I could use. I found some small blocks that are 3" x 1.5" long. I had 4 of them which I was going to make a holder to hold my coils as I used a jewelry saw to cut it. It was a time I wanted to make my own rings for chainmail but that failed through when I realized that the wood I picked was too hard to nail through. The nail got about a centimeter in and it bent afterwards. I also don't own a drill so I couldn't try to drill it. So I had 3 blocks to work with since the last one still had a bent nail in it.

First thing first, I have to sand the blocks down. I only had a medium grade sand block so I could only sand so far before I wished I had a fine grade sand block.

Blocks and sand block. Tough sanding it smooth.

I had a ton of colors to choose to paint the blocks but it ended up being blue. I looked outside and saw the sky and decided to replicate the blue. It didn't work so great because it ended up brighter than it actually was. Still a good blue color though. I used acrylic paint for this project.

 

Pretty blue blocks.

I couldn't really think of anything to paint on these blocks. So I started one thinking of green like a tree and then some apples like a tree. However since I painted it on the long side, it looked more like a rose bush. Then I try to put clouds in and well it was okay but I didn't like it so I scrapped it.

Apple tree/Rose bush kind of look. Didn't really like it.

Next I wanted to make the color pink for some unknown reason. So, I mixed white with a little red and ended up with a nice pink. Then I thought to myself, why did I make this? So, instead of wasting paint, I started painting a circle and ended up as a balloon after. I also made a blue-green and yellow balloon on the same block. I let my boyfriend paint a block since I only really need two of the three blocks. He tried to paint a master sword, and I try to fix it a little but it looks okay. The block I scrapped, I decided to paint Vaporeon since my boyfriend used too much blue and I didn't want that to be wasted.

The three blocks drying off.

 After the paint dried which wasn't very long, I put a polycrylic clear semi gloss topcoat over it. I'm doing 3 coats and it takes a while to dry. After this is done, I'll stick some small slider things on the bottom to prevent it from slipping. These blocks aren't actually very heavy so I hope they can hold small books at least. If not, I have tape and stapler which is doing the work right now.

Luckily this project didn't cost me a thing and I get to use some of my art materials (Yay!). I had those blocks for 2 years or even longer so it's a great thing I get to use it. I hope my next small projects can be done with things I have lying around.

Update: 6.25.2014

In addition to earlier, I forgot to mention I was going to bend some metal wires I have in order to keep the books from toppling over. After all these blocks are kind of small. So, I bent the metal and temporarily taped it. Tape is holding up but I hoping to use a hot glue gun to make it a bit more permanent. However, I ran out of glue sticks so that will be when I remember to get some at a store.

Bent metal into small stands. I have no idea what gauge this is.

Taped the stands to the blocks and it is holding up nicely.