Rain Gutter Bookshelves

Happy New Year Everyone! 
We recently remodeled our basement into a playroom for our girls... one detail that we added and really love are the Rain Gutter Bookshelves. 
The theory behind these bookshelves is that they encourage children to read more because they can see the fronts of the books and are intrigued, rather than just seeing the edge of the book and not being able to tell what it is about.   I am a former reading specialist so I am always searching for ways to encourage reading! Well, we have had these shelves in our new playroom for almost three months now and I truly believe they encourage reading so much more than the traditional bookshelf. The girls love them! I wanted to post this for everyone to view and try it out for yourselves. They are fantastic! I cannot take too much credit for the installation because my husband Eric graciously took over the task... it took him about 15 minutes. He found it to be a really simple task. So here is what you will need to get started : 
I cannot rememeber the exact amount we spent for our 3 shelves but it was somewhere around 25$... very inexpensive!!! Teachers - PUT THEM IN YOUR CLASSROOM:) xo

• Vinyl rain gutters – Our rain gutter shelves are all 5 feet or 2 1/2 feet long and the gutters come in 10 foot lengths.
• Brackets for the rain gutters – I used either 2 or 3 brackets per 5 feet of shelving depending on how much use I thought the shelf would get.
• End caps for the rain gutters. Be sure to get the appropriate number of right and left end caps.
• Wood screws that will fit through the hole in the brackets.
• Hack saw
• Sand paper
• Sharpie marker
• Tape measure
• Drill
• Level
• Marking pencil
• Stud finder

1. Decide the length that you want your shelf to be.  Measure and mark this length on the shelf with the Sharpie. Since I’m one of those perfectionist types and not so handy with a hack saw, I measured and marked six different places around the gutter and then connected the dots so that I had a solid line to cut on.
2. Cut the rain gutter with the hack saw. 
3.Decide where you want to put the shelves and find and mark the studs.
4. Determine the height that you want the top of the shelf to be and mark that point on one of the studs that will be close to the end of the shelf.
5.Using the wood screw and the drill, screw a bracket into the point that you just marked. 
6. Level the shelf. Place the gutter onto the bracket that is already screwed into the wall and place another bracket onto the opposite end of the gutter.  Now balance or hold a level on the gutter and adjust until everything is level.  Then mark where you will screw your next hole on the stud that is closest to the other end of your gutter.
7.Screw the bracket into the stud at the marked height
8.Install additional brackets for stability
9.Glue on the end caps.
10. Repeat for as many shelves you need. Make sure to leave room for the tall books! 

end caps