Permit me to bore you with some new-homeowner angst? Yes, I knew you would.
I’m closing on my first house tomorrow. Something that I kept saying when I was looking for a house was that I wanted to build in bookshelves… and I do.
But the room I’m going to use for my study is, markedly, not the room that is supposed to be used for the study. There is a small bedroom on the side of the house that is supposed to be. I’m going to use one of the larger front bedrooms, though. So I feel a little weird about putting in permanent bookshelves there… because I think I may stay in this house for as little as 3-5 years.
The problem is, I can’t find any freestanding bookshelves that meet my criteria. My criteria are thus:
Must be white
Must go very nearly to the 8’ ceiling
Must be deep on the bottom and shallower on the top. I don’t flipping need 12" deep shelves for 6" deep books! I do have quite a collection of large books to put on a limited number of deep shelves, though.
Must have extra shelves available with a wide array of options for moving shelves around. Those books that are 6" deep? They’re like 8" tall. So I want to use maybe 9", 10" of vertical space for them. Not 14"!
Build them your self. How proficient are you with a cordless drill and a circular saw?
You get unlimited customization, and the next owner can just tear them down if they don’t want them. (or you could take them with you to your next home).
I built an aquarium stand with a cheap cordless screw driver and a cheap “handi saw” and that thing holds up a half ton of water and rocks, and could probably support a full ton. Building a full-wall book shelf would be similar, just more work.
Hmmm. Your ideas intrigue me, and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I have zero carpentry experience. I like to build things, though. I spend most of my free time knitting, crocheting, and sewing. I am the kind of person who cannot measure something twice and get the same number both times. I’m also clumsy.
Maybe I could build them myself. I’ll keep the possibility in mind.
What I’ve found since my OP is the IKEA Billy system. If I get the “lift” unit, it will go pretty darn near the ceilings. Lots of adjustable shelves. Still 11" deep, but… le sigh, le shed of tear.
What worries me is that the darn things are particleboard. Me no trustee particleboard. Sounds like they’d fall apart in five years. Anyone have experience with IKEA fiberboard bookcases?
Yes. I have a half dozen sets of them in the guest room (aka study overflow). They’ve been up for at least 17 years (how long I’ve been in this house) and are doing fine.
If you can live with 11", go for it. In my house we’ve been storing books in BILLY and IVAR systems practically forever, and I even moved house thrice with a couple of BILLYs, which were little the worse for wear thereafter. Do note, however, that the BILLY is only half-customizable, because the center board cannot be moved – it’s always fixed. So you’re a little less flexible than otherwise.
Something I can recommend as well, because it’s dirt cheap, easy and completely customizable is this:
I’d better explain in case this is unknown in the U.S.: it’s essentially a number of rails that you fasten to the walls, with little slots in them; into those slots you can put pieces of metal whereon you can place all possible variants of boards. Best of all, you can have both 6" deep and 9" deep and whatever-deep shelves in one system. The only downside is that you won’t get the shelf-feeling, it’ll look more like a solid wall of books if done right.
For storing paperback books on normal-size shelves, that is, shelves that are deeper and taller than necessary for paperback books, I shelf them in two rows, with the back row resting on some scrap wood or anythig else that I can find that will raise them three inches or so above the level of the books in front of them. That way you can read the titles and get at them fairly easily.
With Billy (and others, I’m sure) you can set the shelves to different heights - we have some set for paperback heights and other shelves in the same unit set for artbook height. In fact, if you get the add-on sections on top, you can miss one out and thus have a section for even taller books…
We have 6 sections along two walls plus a corner piece in the angle but it’s a bit awkward to use efficiently so we’ve mainly got magazine boxes on it’s shelves…
I’m a fan of the “Billy” bookshelves. They are the only thing I’ll buy from Ikea - I’m generally not fond of the Ikea look. But their bookshelves are great. I’ve had mine for many years and several moves.
I would do industrial-type shelves. You know…the metal strip and braces…completely adjustable and you can put shallow shelves on the top, deeper ones near the bottom. The metal and the shelves themselves can be painted whatever color you want. When it’s time to move, you can either take them with you or leave them for the next guy. They really don’t look bad, once you have them filled with books. The metal thingys disappear behind the books. No problem!
And they’re cheap, compared to expensive bookcases that may or may not work in every place you move to. Plus, you don’t have the giant hassle of moving them for carpet or flooring installation, etc.
My own dream is to have custom-built shelves in my own library. Right now, what I have is a spare bedroom filled with “billy” shelves and some shelves I made myself. However, we are planning an addition on the house, and one of my goals is to get an extended library upstairs and build-in bookshelves.
My dad, in his retirement, is devoting himself to managing his own land and some land his sister donated to a conservation area; part of that occupation requires him to thin some trees out occasionally, and so he has some rather nice hardwood logs lying around - in the past, he’s sent logs off to be milled, and made shelves out of the boards for his cottage. I’m thinking it would be rather nice to use some wood harvested in that way to build a library - I’d probably hire a real carpenter to do it, though, as my own skills are pretty rudimentary.
Sounds like Billy is my boy. One more question, to the people who own them: the wall that I want to put the shelves along is 120" wide. The Billy bookcases are 31.5" wide. This makes me want to buy four of them, and saw off a couple inches of all the shelves and tops and bottoms of one of them, so they fit along the wall. Is this possible, or is the particleboard/masonite/whatever too tough to saw?
The industrial bookshelves anchored to the wall is intriguing. One would attach the metal strips so that the screws holding them go into studs, correct? But is even that really strong enough to hold shelves full of heavy books? Is any additional reinforcement necessary?
I wouldn’t attempt to try this; it’s all cut and bored for screws, etc.
Instead, you could buy 3 full-width ones and a shorter unit (they come in 2 widths) and, if you want to make it fill the whole wall, buy a matching cd rack to fill the space, or something…
Cutting particle board won’t be a problem, but cutting a Billy may be a problem depending how how it is joined.
If you put the screws 1.5" - 2" into the studs that will be very strong and will easily hold books. My Mom has a bookshelf like that in her rec room and it’s been there for years.
We’ve had our IKEA bookshelves for 20 years and they’re still fine. They have cabinets in the bottom and the doors are a bit wonky, but it’s not like they are falling apart or anything.
The stuff posted by Enterprise is available in the US in all the big box stores. It even comes in white. Like this stuff at Lowes. They come in two strengths in my experience, for heavier loads and lighter.
Just make sure the steel tracks are screwed to the wall with lots of long screws, decking screws work nicely, and into the studs, not just into the wallboard.
Line the screw holes up horizontally or your shelves will lean.
Crate and Barrel has the Sloane Leaning Bookcases in white (I have them in espresso). My wall is a bit wider than 4 of them (3 + 1 desk) and I just put them spaced a little bit to fill up the space. They look better than any of their website photos!
The bottom shelves are 12" deep so you can put larger books and items, they get narrower as the case leans to the wall.