Maple Shelves for Toys

About 2 years ago, I made a set of shelves at my wife’s request. These shelves were for my son (who is now two and a half) to keep toys on. The design called for shelves large enough to hold baskets that would be used to store most of his toys. The idea is to allow for easy access for him to all of his toys and help him learn to keep things in their place. This has been very effective as he now knows where each of his toys belongs and will usually pick his toys up when prompted. I constructed the shelves from 1/2” Maple. The shelves are roughly 36” tall, 45” wide, and 14” deep.

I designed these shelves with a few things in mind:
1. I wanted them to be easy to construct.
2. I wanted to take them down and store them flat.
3. The dimensions needed to accommodate the baskets.
4. I wanted them to be durable and safe for kids.

Based on these requirements, I used a simple set of notches in the shelves and the supports that allow the pieces to fit together snugly enough that they don’t require glue but not so snugly that they can’t be disassembled. I rounded all of the exposed corners on the shelves with a 3/4” radius and the exposed corners on the supports with a 1” radius. I created a bull nose profile on the all exposed edges. This profile is strong, durable, and softens the edge. For this finish, I chose mineral oil because it brings out the beauty of the Maple and is completely non-toxic. Of course, I attached the shelves firmly to wall studs so there is no chance of them tipping over.

These shelves have been used heavily everyday for about 2 years, and they still look great. Every year or so, I add a fresh coat of mineral oil to keep the finish looking good. I recently made a second set of shelves using the same design but with different dimensions.

-- Daniel, Southern Indiana -- "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." -- http://blackdogwoodshop.etsy.com