SHELF FOR… BOTTLES

This wall-mounted cellular shelving unit is very convenient for storing a supply of various drinks in bottles — from mineral water and wine to yogurts. They are visible, easily accessible, and take up little space.

Blanks

To make such a shelving unit, the Bulgarian magazine “Napravi sam” recommends using smoothly planed boards 20 mm thick and 70 mm wide. From them, it will be necessary to cut 18 inserts, 8 of which, 600 mm long, will go to horizontal shelves, and 10, 480 mm long — to vertical partitions.

To assemble a shelf from them, grooves are cut in each blank at the distances shown in the drawing, to half the width of the board in the thickness of the blank. There will be 5 such grooves in all horizontal elements, and 4 in vertical ones. The density and strength of the subsequent mutual connection of the inserts will depend on the accuracy and precision of these cuts.

After making the grooves, the boards are again carefully sanded and polished, otherwise this work will have to be done during the final finishing of the product after final assembly.

Assembly

The shelving unit consists of practically two independent cellular shelves, each of which has 12 cells and consists of 4 horizontal and 5 vertical blanks. Let us first consider how the constituent elements are assembled, using the example of one shelf.

Vertical and horizontal blanks are joined by mutually inserting them into each other with matching grooves. This can be done in different ways. For example, first insert all vertical blanks into the grooves of one horizontal blank, then turn the resulting block over and insert the remaining three horizontal ones. It is also possible to join edge pairs: two vertical and two horizontal first, and then the resulting “window” is filled with middle elements.

After both independent shelf blocks are assembled, they are placed next to each other with a 100 mm gap between them and connected to each other using fastening wooden bars with a cross-section of 20×20 mm and a length of 240 mm (metal angles can be used instead of bars). The bars are screwed with screws to horizontal or vertical elements — as convenient to work with a screwdriver. Again, for greater convenience and easier screwing of screws, holes of the appropriate diameter can be pre-drilled in the bars, and the screws themselves can be rubbed with soap.

If you look carefully at the drawing, it is easy to notice that the connected shelves are turned to each other so that the vertical elements are directed with their grooves in opposite directions, and the horizontal ones, on the contrary, towards each other. This is done so that if necessary, by removing an unfastened horizontal shelf, it is possible to increase the cell volume in height.

Such a shelving unit can be used both in a tabletop version and in a wall-mounted one. In the latter case, for its suspension, metal loops are screwed to the upper part of the extreme and middle vertical elements.

Finishing

As always in cases of using wooden blanks, their finishing will depend on the surface texture. If the wood patterns are attractive and the material is without knots — it is better to cover the finished product with transparent furniture varnish — in several layers, with intermediate drying. When it is necessary to hide wood defects, instead of transparent, it is better to take dark varnish, enhancing the masking with preliminary surface treatment with stain. This can also be resorted to when the furniture adjacent to the shelving unit in the room is dark in color. And if painted — it is better to paint the shelving unit with suitable nitro- or enamel paint. At the same time, for greater decorativeness, the edges of the parts can be darker or even a different color.