Tetris!

[cjsmith]

These would be AWESOME in my living room.

Well, they would be awesome once we rip out the paneling and put drywall in, and after we take out that ex-window while we're at it. (There's a window that used to look out onto a patio. That patio is now a room. The window framing, trim included, is still there on the living room side.) When we moved in we were broke, so we covered up the ex-window with three seven-foot bookcases. If that wall were all nicely painted drywall these Tetris shelves would be STUNNING.

But they'd be way out of the budget. Way out.

I suspect it would be possible to make my own. I am the least skilled woodworker on the entire planet, even if you count newborn infants, so I would not be able to depend on kung fu joinery skills to make shelves that wouldn't collapse. I see a few options:

1) Don't ever put any stuff on the shelves. Then you don't have to have excellent joints. A simple miter would do.
2) Put a back on them. They'd look a lot less cool, but they'd be more likely to hold if you put weight on the shelf. (To mitigate the loss of cool, the back could be painted to match the wall.)
3) Hide angle brackets between two layers of wood, or hide flat corner brackets on the back surface.

I don't think you can get away without knowing how to do veneer. Either that or your finish work -- on a lovely wood -- has to be very good.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

The kicker with that design is the fit. They have to be just so. I think they'd actually be pretty stable as long as the cutting and fitting were very accurate.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, accuracy would be key. I suspect that's another place where skill is needed, and I have a gut feeling there's no shortcut for it. I suspect I'd throw out quite a few.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Want, want, want.

I also notice this: Each block runs about $350 ... The ten-piece set shown above is $6790.

Ummm, math check? ;)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

That's Hollywood Math in reverse :):).

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Thus the shelving party. :)

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking I should go into business buying them one at a time, and then
reselling the 10-packs for $5000, undercutting their prices but still making a nice margin. :)

(Sadly, I think the deal is that there are two sizes of those shelves, and the $350 price is probably for the smaller of the two, whereas the 10-piece set listed at nearly $7K is probably for the larger.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I like your business model. You could skim a few units off the top for yourself and the books would still show a tidy profit.

(And yes, I think you're spot-on about the prices and the sizes.)

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Oh, one more thing, as to the veneer or high quality wood thing.
You can get high-end plywoods that have mahogany or other fine wood facings. Then you add a veneer tape to the raw edges (it comes in widths appropriate to the plywood thickness). Not terribly difficult to do. Again, more about precision than anything else.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It would be a very cool thing, such a party.

Making even one finished block would probably take multiple days, so the party would last, say, two weeks? Eeeexcellent. I'll bring the wine.

The party planner would have to divide up friends, mentally, into a few groups: 1) has actual skills, 2) can bring tools, 3) can provide materials for self and for others, 4) um, good conversationalist. A party with lots of 2 and 3 but no 1 would be creatively wackily ugly. A party with lots of 1 would probably just debate best methods all day and then go home. A party with nothing but 4 would have people wearing lampshades by midnight or so, with a small group off in the bedroom drawing Tetris figures on each other in chocolate. I think I'll sign up for group 4. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I've seen the veneer tape in big rolls in Home Depot. It's scarily nifty! I didn't know about the high-end plywoods that come pre-faced, though. Wow.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Saves a bundle in furniture making of this type. Hardwood planks would cost a small fortune. Pretty simple to duplicate at a much lower cost with the fancy plywood and veneer tapes. Then you simply stain and finish the way you want to.

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

It might be fun to just make them out of plywood and paint them Tetris colors, for a rec room maybe.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! Or a teenager's room. Definitely much closer to my skill level! :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I always figured veneer was applied custom, per piece. That is such a clever alternative!

I wonder how hard it is to cut that kind of plywood without the veneer splintering.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

If you're mitering, you'd need a good mitering table saw with a fine blade.
You might be able to get away with one of the table-top models, depending upon the size of the bed and the width of your boards, but I think a table saw would be the way to go. You'd likely have to do a bit of putty fill, but not too much. Also, for stability I'd recommend using biscuits in the joins, as well as gluing up and nailing.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

from what i gathered in the comment thread, the $350 blocks are smaller than those in the set shown

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I'm actually a 1, but for this I'll pretend I'm a 4!!!

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i'm a 5: keeps the food and drinks flowing and provides lots of encouragement, etc.

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

*want*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That counts as a 4. Here's your lampshade. :-)