Best Bookshelves Ever?
October 10, 2017In the area of the Luberon where I live, there is a wonder wood called “mélèze”. It is “tamarack” in English and it is a versatile wood imbued with a natural pesticide that weathers extremely well in the northern Provençal climate.
I use the mélèze beams for all of my outdoor construction projects, but my favorite thing is the offcuts. You can get one metric tonne of mélèze offcuts for about €100 for 2-meter lengths and €130 for 3-metre lengths and you can use them for just about anything.
Mélèze Offcuts
I’ve used these offcuts as siding for my horse paddock and for my wood shed:
Horse Paddock
Wood Shed
I’ve also used them to construct a fence along my northern property limit and to side my garden shed and build raised gardens:
Fence
Raised Gardens
But, no construction gives me greater pride than my bookshelves. In my circle of friends, one’s bookshelves are a matter of honour, so I’ve long seen these mélèze offcuts as the perfect bookshelf material. I needed to wait for a visit from my carpentry attuned friend Adrian to complete the project, and now that they have been erected I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that these should be on the shortlist of best bookshelves ever.
