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.