DIY kids book bin

Thank you all so much for all the sweet comments on the big girls’ room reveal – so glad you love it as much as I do I received many email on the kids book bin I made for the girls and how you wanted to make one for your own kiddos, so today is a little tutorial for the DIY kids book bin I made for my smallest girls’ room this time… I told you guys, we’ve got PLENTY of book around here! My girls are such book worms!

For this book bin, I teamed up with two of my favorite companies to give the book bin a different feel. Pretty Pegs provided some beautiful legs for the bin (the dipped gold!), and Chasing Paper sent me some of the same removable wallpaper that I used on the accent wall to line the inside of the book bin (on another note, did you see their new collection by Lisa Congdon?! To die for!). I really love how this book bin turned out!

These low book bins make it perfect for kids to browse through their books without taking them all out of the case – I mean, hello, are there any other parents out there that go nuts before their kids have to take EVERY.SINGLE.BOOKS out of the shelf to find the one book they wanted?! Drove me bananas! But we have no more of that now The tutorial is very simple and I hope you and your little ones enjoy this project!

What you need

Wood – all of the pieces I used were 3/4 inch thick – if you use a different thickness make sure to recalculate all of the measurements.
- Bottom piece: 34 1/2″ x 17″
- Front and back pieces: 3 feet x 9 1/4″
- Side pieces: 17″ x 9 1/4″
- Inserts: 17″ x 8 1/2″
Measuring tape
Saw
Drill + drill bits or nails/wood glue
Removable wallpaper (I used this one in gold and white)
Paint
Painter’s tape
Furniture legs + hardware (I used these in teak + gold)

What you do

Decide the size you want your bins to be – my measurements are listed above you you could choose to make your book bin smaller etc – and trace the measurements into your wood. I used pine because it’s easy to cut and I knew I wanted to paint my bin, but you could used another type of wood.

Cut the pieces out – best to use a sliding miter box saw if you have one to cut the pieces as straight as possible…I didn’t so use my little jig saw.
To attach the pieces of wood, you have several options that are fairly easy: 1) Glue and nail the sides and back of the toy bin together or 2) use screws + countersink drill bit + wood putty. I chose the latter because I wanted the extra strength of the screws and I knew I was going to paint over the putty anyway – but entirely up to you. I first attached the front of the bin to the bottom piece, then the back piece to the bottom pieces and then attached the two sides pieces. Sand the edges and any rough spots on the bin.

At that point, I wallpapered the inside of the bin as well as the two wood insert that make the compartments.
Place the two inserts to form three compartments about 10″/13″/10″ and attach to the bin using your preferred method. The left and right compartments are great for books in the portrait format while the middle compartment allows to store books in the landscape format

If desired, paint the edges and outside of the box -use painters tape to not put any paint on your wallpaper. You could also chose to wallpaper your bin last.
Attach your pegs to your bin – Pretty Pegs made it super easy for me as the legs came with all the hardware I needed!