Wish I was a carpenter
The issue of book cases reared its head again as I tripped over a book on the floor in the dark two nights ago. The floor, as we all know, is the largest shelf in the house, but it’s not ideal for roughly half of one’s library.
I had been thinking about buying some book cases from IKEA, now that a store has opened an hour or so away. But, really, I’d need at least 6 bookcases and that begins to run into a little jingle. Besides, I’d like to be able to break the shelves down and move them easily.
And then I recalled a book shelf design I’d fallen in love with—in a book entitled Living with Books. Kind of a coffee table book for book lovers who are nosy about how other people store/display/cram their books in small spaces or large ones.
The shelving I have in mind is supported by upright posts, braced between floor and ceiling (spring tension, I think), with cantilever brackets holding the shelves securely with the wall as additional support. Nothing is screwed into the wall or ceiling.
Below is a badly photographed image from the book, but I think it shows you what I’m talking about.
I don’t think I’m up to building anything quite that detailed, but it seems to me the idea could be scaled to a novice’s talents and still be sturdy and look nice. I’m kind of working that around in my mind. Nothing else is going to appeal to me now that I’ve rediscovered this design. It’s elegantly simple and practical and easily moved about. Just makes me drool to think about it.
check out crate and barrel--I swear they had something similar and not terribly expensive either.
Posted by cyn on 12/28/05 at 10:03 AM
I know this is not the answer you want to hear but I’m going to say it anyway. Put anything you can bear to do without in a box. Once it’s been out of sight for a while it may be less difficult to get rid of. Find four junk novels and kiss them goodbye. Find the cookbook you never cook anything from and hate the author’s tone of voice and relegate it. Adopt the one-in one-out method (or the one-out one-in one).
(can you tell I’ve recently been through the bookcase?)
Posted by
Guess that means I shouldn’t use my sleeve, eh Pablo? Well okay. 
Cyn, I checked their catalog on their website, but didn’t see anything similar. Did you see something like it in the C&B store?
Steph, I took that step last summer. Got rid of many, many books. The ones that are left are ones I use often as reference or are treasured authors or first editions or old old books. I also need to replace the shelves I already have. They were supposed to be a temporary measure, but temporary has stretched into several years now. They are the kind with metal strips screwed into wall studs with brackets attached and shelves plopped on them. The shelves are so overburdened that they’re drooping on the ends and in the middle. If I look at them cross-eyed, they collapse. And then there are the books stacked on the floor.... And, of course, there are the un-bookish things that I’d like to display on shelves—photographs and artsy things that have no place to go right now.
If I could find some plans, I might be able to get my favorite carpenter (the one who built the front porch and installed my windows) to build some for me. Business is slow in the winter and he’s one of the last who does excellent work and charges a pittance. He likes fussy carpentry work, too. I’ll explore that, too.
545,000 hits for “bookcase plans” at Google. 
The very first one is free plans with links to about 15 varieties.
Lots of plans out there, but they’re all traditional stand alone bookcases. I’ve looked at reams of Google pages and I’m about ready to just go get some cinderblocks and boards and call it a done deal.
Cinderblocks and 1/2” particle board! Back to college days!
LOL! Well, I was thinking more in terms of thick pine planks and painted cinderblocks (or glass bricks), but yeah. You can’t beat it for flexibility.
We looked everywhere for bookcases and ended up with the IKEA Billy bookcases - they’re affordable, cheaper than even the lumber needed to do something similar. They come in different sizes to fit into spaces, there’s a very narrow one for CD’s, and extensions that will take them nearly up to the ceiling and corner units so you can circle the entire room! Love them
Believe me, there’s NOTHING affordable at Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn.
You can get very simple bookshelves at an unfinished furniture place and then dress them up with molding from one of those home improvement stores...you only need a small saw and finishing nails and a hammer....and if you want to get really fancy, a mitre box. After you’re done, just paint or stain them. It’s a very easy, inexpensive project.
You guys really want me to have more furniture to deal with, dontcha? I am *so* not sure what I’m going to do, but the solution is going to resolve itself in the next week or two because I have reached critical stress levels with this mess. I need tidy and serene. Badly.
Next entry: Cultural Creative
Previous entry: Practical matters
I certainly can’t help you with the carpentry, but I could send along a box of tissues to help with the drool if you want!