Ever since we moved into the new house my cookbook collection was sitting in a box
on the floor at the end of the kitchen counter. It's not very pretty, and it's not
very kind to the cookbooks.
Over the years I've created a eclectic collection of cookbooks -- classics like
a reprint of the 1964 edition of Joy of Cooking and a Betty Crocker Cookbook
as well as some newer specialized cookbooks -- the Weight Watchers Take out Tonight
cookbook for example.
We needed a simple little shelf to put the cookbooks on, but the space where we
have to put the shelf is limited by the sliding glass door on one side, the kitchen
cabinets on the other, and the counter overhang on the eating bar limits the space
for the shelf on top. It also needs to fit some oversized cookbooks, and my collection
of Cooking Light magazines.
I built the shelf out of maple, 5/4 stock for the legs, ladder supports, and back
stringers and 4/4 stock milled to 3/4 for edge banding on the 3/4 plywood shelves.
It's assembled with glue and biscuits, all the clamps I owned at the time let me
put it togheter one shelf and one ladder at a time. It was painfully slow since
I only worked on it on the weekends -- the whole glue up process took over a
month. It didn't help that I dropped one of the side ladders and bent it. I had
to split it apart and re-glue it, setting me back a week.
Originally I was going to finish the shelf bright, but Dana asked me to paint it
white. I would have been upset at the decision, after all I paid a bunch of money
for the maple, but I left so many burns in the legs while ripping the stock to width
I was actually happy to use the paint to cover up the problems.
As built the shelves fit the space nicely and they hold my current collection
of cookbooks with room to spare for the new ones I'm bound to pick up over the
years. It's made a big difference in the neatness of the corner of the kitchen
counter too.