Priming, Painting, and Bookshelf Assembly

Since it was still easily accessible, I primed the entire barn and painted the interior of the barn. I used Ford Red Enamel tractor paint, which should be very durable (at least I hope so!). While it was drying I began construction on the bookshelves. They are put together with strips of plywood, hurricane brackets, and finish nails.

Take your 5" strip of plywood and 3". Measure your space in the barn. I cut all my plywood pieces to 72" and then trimmed them one at a time as needed. My walls leaned in just a tiny bit towards the top so I had to shave them down a bit. DON'T build the entire bookshelf without measuring the fit! You never know, and you sure don't want to have to tear it all apart when it won't slide in the opening!!

Match up your edges as shown in the picture and mark the holes for your bracket in the center. One of the holes is too close to the edge for a bolt to fit, so I used four bolts on one side and three on the other. Drill holes and secure bracket. Use finish nails to secure the lengths of wood together. On the back of the 5" piece of wood, measure and mark a horizontal line 1" from the top. This will help you line up your next level of shelving later on. You can either build all sections for that side at once, or connect them as you go. I wanted to keep track of how I was doing so I connected them one at a time before moving on. The second side I just made them assembly line fashion. To connect them together you need to lay the pieces upside down. Match the top shelf base up with the line you drew. Mark spots for two hurricane brackets and secure them with your bolts. Turn the shelves over and hammer in a couple finish nails in the front seam to alleviate any small cracks that may have stuck around. Continue in this manner until you get to the top level. At that point I went ahead and measured my top level and put in the two brackets to hold the top shelf. Since the top shelf is more than 3" like the others, I waited to install it until the shelves were secured on the barn.

In order to secure the bookshelves to the barn, I took some scrap plywood and cut squares appx. 3x3" and nailed them to the backs of the angles. I did the next step by myself, but an extra pair of hands would have made life a lot easier! Slowly slide the shelf into the barn and make sure it's level. Secure each side temporarily with one wood screw into the squares. Just one per side will hold it for now. Get the other side finished and secure it as well.

Once you have both sides inserted, you can measure and cut the top shelf. Secure it with bolts and finish nails. Drill holes in the sides to anchor each block with bolts. I used #8, 32X 1 1/4" bolts with locking nuts for this.

Once again you will need to use your Plasti-Dip and cover all the bolts, nuts, and metal pieces. Also check for exposed nails and coat them too. (I had a couple nails that went through a little too low and didn't sink in the wood, which left a small amount of sharpness exposed and could potentially scratch someone if not covered.

Go ahead and paint the rest of the barn with primer, then red paint inside and out. At this time also paint your trim pieces with primer and paint. I used about 4- 8' sections of shoe molding, 3- 8' sections 1/4" lattice trim, 2 - 8' pieces of 1" corner trim, and 8' - 3" molding. I suggest you buy a little more than you need in case you need to re-cut any pieces or have to redo any of it. I used the same brand of enamel tractor paint in white gloss.

Plasti Dip

Along the bottom edge I used 1 1/4" wood screws and screwed the walls to the base every 3 or 4 inches. This may seem like overkill, but I don't want to build one of these again, and I have 22 more years of teaching left! :)


I discovered a fantastic product that I used to cover all the sharp edges and metal pieces of the barn. I didn't want any of my students to get scratched by the bolts but didn't think that using just a couple coats of paint over them would be enough. Plasti Dip is a liquid plastic for dipping tools, but I used it with a paintbrush and brushed a layer of it over every bolt, screw, nail, etc. In a few places I used a second coat. Later on, once I built the top, I used this again for the remainder of the metal brackets, so don't forget and leave the lid off! It will dry up pretty quickly.

Hurricane Brackets and Corner Braces

Each corner is supported by 3" corner brace. Anchor it to the base with the provided screws. Anchor 5 hurricane brackets flush with the edges of the base, leaving the front without one to allow for the opening. Very carefully, take your front piece and stand it up flush with the base. Using a regular pencil (carpenter pencils won't fit) draw through the corner bracket holes into the front. Drill holes with a 11/32" drill bit. Insert #8 32 X 3/4" screws from front into the bracket and secure. Finger tighten all bolts and then once you have the piece stabilized, then tighten with ratchet or hand ratchet.

Attach one side piece in the same manner, by marking holes, drilling, and bolting them together. Secure the side to the front with an additional hurricane bracket. Measure carefully; if you are a little off they will not fit snugly together and the gap will throw everything else askew!

Continue to the back piece and then the remaining side. Make sure to secure each piece to the base first and then the adjoining sides.

Sanding, Measuring, and Cutting

Step 1: Sand Sand Sand! Make sure you are starting with a nice, smooth piece of plywood. You sure don't want any of your kiddos to get a splinter while they're trying to enjoy their story!

Step 2: With a good solid carpenter's pencil, a square, and a tape measure, start tracing out your pieces. I used 3/4" plywood for the base, which measured 3'6" X 2'7" in order to place the sides alongside the base for stability. The four sides are cut from 1/2" and 3/8" plywood (according to your preference and availability). To make the window openings, I found that it was easiest to draw my box and drill large holes inside each corner. This will help your jigsaw turn the corner more easily. Just make sure your bit is a couple sizes larger than the jigsaw blade. I used a circular saw to make all my straight cuts and the jigsaw for my interior cuts.

Step 3: For any cut edge that wasn't exactly perfect, I took my wood plane and planed the edges until they were square. By leaving the edges uneven or jagged, the pieces will not fit properly at time of assembly. You can also use your sander to sand down the edges if they are rough or jagged.

Step 4: For the bookshelf pieces, make sure you only plan one shelf at a time. It is easy to forget that the blade itself takes away a small amount of wood away with it which will affect your measurement if you plotted out the entire sheet of plywood ahead of time. I was able to get most of my shelf pieces out of one piece of plywood, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, one of my pieces of plywood was a little bowed, so I ended up cutting the shelves, stacking them out of the way, and weighing them down flat with landscaping blocks for a few days. That seemed to allow the bow to fall out of most of them.