I needed more storage space, and my neighbor’s birch tree was blown over in a storm.
When I saw that my neighbor was discarding birch logs from a fallen tree, I took them home and started to think about what could be done with them I came across a bookcase built by Koko Architecture. I read up on working with birch logs and saw that it was best to use kiln-dried logs that had been harvested in winter. So I ended up not using my neighbor’s wood and bought kiln-dried logs from Amazon.
Next I went to the big box hardware stores to buy shelves. I decided to go for black shelves instead of white in the hope that contrast would look better than an inexact match (since the birch bark is not as white as the shelves).
I didn’t want any screws showing, so I have two dowels at the top and bottom of each log, going into the shelves. The dowels and the logs themselves are glued in place.
In Koko’s work and in mine, the logs are at angles and are not in line with each other to give the impression of a birch forest.
The shelves will only look this good for a short time. Once I start loading them up with books or something, they’ll probably just look cluttered.
I still need more shelves in other places in the house, so this might not be my last birch log bookshelf.
