How To Hang Art On A Bookshelf And Still Have Easy Access To The Books

4 Materials
$8
1 Hour
Easy

I have always loved the look of bookshelves that have art hanging on the front of them. Especially in small rooms, it is a great way to create more "wall space". But I have never done it before because it seemed to make getting to the books very awkward.

I finally decided to try it when I was organizing my office.


Click HERE to see more of my DIY office organizing projects.


I have these shelves where I store books and binders that I use all the time. So not only did I want the picture to look pretty, but I had to be able to get to the things behind it. As a bonus, it would help to hide the ugly binders.

Start by attaching some hinges to the back of the picture frame.


I put them on the side of the frame so that the picture would open out. But you could put them on the top if you have a shelf at the right height and you want the picture to open up instead of out.

Then figure out how high the picture needs to be. Make sure that the hinges are lining up where they can be attached to the shelf.


This would be easier with a helper...but since I didn't have one, I put all those books to use!

Attach the hinges to the side of the bookshelf.


Now I needed something to keep the picture closed against the shelves.


You can buy special door hardware that will do this, but since I had an angle bracket and a magnet on hand, I did a DIY version instead.


In either case, attach the door stop (in my case the angle bracket) to the opposite corner of the shelf where the free end of the picture frame will hit it.


Then attach the magnet or strike plant to the picture frame making sure it is in the right location to hit the bracket.

Now I have a picture on my bookcase that hides those ugly binders.

But still have easy access to everything behind it.

It worked so well that I ended up doing the same thing with a mirror on the other side of the shelves.


Click HERE to see all of the details and step-by-step pictures for this project.

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Wanda @ From House To Home
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  2 questions
  • Cmh29738869 Cmh29738869 on Apr 07, 2018

    The link does not lead to the hinges you used. Where do I find those kind of hinges?

  • Tricia Tricia on Mar 22, 2019

    Why would you offset the picture and mirror and not square it with the book shelves? It’s a wonderful idea to utilize space but to me it looks awkward.

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