These DIY Letter Shelves are a really fun project that can be customized to your decor and can be personalized with your choice of letters. This post has been a long time coming. I started making these shelves and formed the actual letters a few months ago. And I just got around to finishing them off yesterday. November and December were busy full of Christmas decor and Christmas recipes and other random stuff, so I never made time to finish these shelves. But I’m so glad I finally did! They are so adorable!

They are fairly easy to replicate with 1″x2″ boards of wood and any letter of your choice. A curvy letter like ‘S’ can be made linear in the same way that ‘C’ was made linear. All my cuts were made at 90 degrees for ease in cutting, but if you make your cuts at 45 degrees, you will be forming more of a frame joint. And it will look a bit neater, too!

Let’s get to the tutorial now, shall we?

DIY Letter Shelves

Supplies Needed:

• 1″x2″ boards of wood
• miter saw
• white paint
• foam brush
• power drill
• 1″ screws
• wood glue
• decorative duct tape
• string or yarn
• hot glue

Directions:

Start by making your cuts. I made all my cuts at 90 degrees- it just made cutting a little easier and more straightforward for me. Determine how to make your desired letter linear and sketch out on a piece of paper the size and shape of your letter, so you know how to make your cuts.

Use wood glue to adhere the joints. Then insert 2 screws in each of the joints for reinforcement.

Paint your letters white.

Wrap the tops and bottoms of each letter with your decorative tape. Fold over excess onto the back of the letter- they won’t show!

To hang the letters, I simply used a small piece of yarn and hot glued it to both sides on the back of the letters. These shelves are not intended to support a lot of weight so they are holding up just fine.

If you try to make these shelves, let me know how it goes!


It’s a fun little project and since these are going in the nursery, I decorated the shelves with cute little figurines from the kids’ playsets! My kids love looking up at these letters and pointing to their favorite little characters!

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