Trash Panda's Pipe Dreams: Industrial Pipe Bookends

I picked up a copy of James Angus' 'DIY Industrial Pipe Furniture & Decor' at the library because Trash Panda is a sucker for anything with "DIY" and "Industrial" in the title. And the pictures on the front looked pretty good.

So, let's start small and see if this shit really works. Lemme see here - Big Pipe Bookends. I could use some hefty bookends to give me some more shelf space, so sure.

Here’s the parts, all in 1 inch diameter black metal plumbing pipe:

4 (1 inch) flanges
2 (4 inch) nipples
2 (90 degree) elbows
2 (1 inch) close nipples*

I was a renegade and decided I wanted both the bookends to be the same height, instead of different heights like Angus did it.

Here’s the parts all put together and holding up books:

Pros for this project:

It's super easy to find one inch pipe and its accessories at the local hardware store
This really does only take 5 minutes to make and it's just screwing a few parts together
The bookends are hefty enough to hold up chunky books, which is v. useful
I think the bookends look cool

Con for this project:

Fuck me, it cost $50 for all the parts. For only two bookends.

The prices I saw at my neighborhood hardware store were about the same as Home Depot's. You can get cheaper pipe parts online, and you could also save a little money by using 3/4 inch pipe. But even if you got it down to $30 or $40....you can get some real nice bookends on Etsy for thirty or forty bucks.

I ended up keeping the bookends because I really like how they look and its nice to have more usable shelf space. But unless you've got a hookup on cheap or free plumbing pipe**, so far this book does not live up to Angus' claim of making home decor on a shoestring budget.

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* This is by far the most nipples I've ever used for a craft project.
** If you have the hookup for cheap or free metal plumbing pipe plz drop Trash Panda a line.

Note: All photos not of/from 'DIY Industrial Pipe Furniture & Decor' are by Trash Panda DIY

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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