Bibliomania: Building Bookshelves

While searching for ideas for bookshelves I recently stumbled upon this quote on a blog,

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

Anna Quindlen

and began to realise how my life revolves around the bookshelves. 

But bookshelves are a must.  We've run out of room and now books are sitting in the basement (cave in French).

Here are a few things to consider when building bookshelves.

1. How many books do you own?

Now who says you don't use math outside of school? After a few calculations based on bookshelves in our current apartment that we love, we realise for our massive collection of books we'll need at least 62 shelves (based on 40 books per shelf).


2. How long do you want the bookshelves to be?

This is a very important question because the length of shelves will determine which kind of wood you will have to use. Note I said have and not can. One thing you'll notice quickly as a bibliophile is that soft woods or particle board will sag under the weight of books. This sagging will worsen based on the length of your shelf unless you use hardwoods that can handle the amount of weight and stress you will put on the shelf, especially towards the center.

3. How much space do you want between the shelves?

If you're like us you have books of various sizes, but standard format for books is usually less than 30 cm high (which is just shy of 12 inches). Oversized books such as coffee table books can range in size and of course there are smaller format books. Separate your books and see what percentage of your books are standard format, oversized, or pint sized.

4. How deep do you want the shelves?

Do you like to have extra space in front of the books? We will be restricted to the depth of our bookshelves because of the space we have designated, but if you have a more bountiful floor space we hate you you can play around with the appearance of the shelves.

5. Where will the bookshelves go?

Our answer will probably be everywhere they can, but if you need less shelves, you will have more options. I like making the most of wall space and especially like using difficult spaces. A recessed area in a wall, a corner between the doors, or even where you might least expect them. I've even seen pictures of books stashed under the stairs (which is clever except for the dust and dirt the books will accumulate under there, so it's not practical). Find where the shelves will go and a lot of your questions will be answered because the space will determine your options.

Here are some bookshelves to inspire you and get your project started.

Do yourself a big favor and draft out a plan for your bookshelves. Even if you're not Louis Kahn you can still make a rough draft that will give you an idea of what you want your bookshelves to look like and calculate the dimensions. We're lucky that a professional carpenter will be helping us with this project, but if you're not you will need to plan out your shelves perfectly in order to save yourself money. Even with a professional carpenter we want to be as economical (and more importantly) and as environmentally friendly as possible.

Here is the 1st draft:

This draft was sort of like the dream draft where our books vs. the amount of space duked it out and the amount of space won because we then had to make another draft.

The wall we will use for the books is the most difficult wall in the living room because it's blocked on every side. It's blocked to the left (the draft is facing the as yet not made bookshelves) by a small cupboard and the slant of the ceiling. On the top it's also partially blocked by the slant of the ceiling. To the right it's blocked by a corner and a doorway to the terrace.

What I decided to do is to divide up the space based on the slant of the ceiling on the left-hand side. The shelves cannot be as tall, so what I've drafted here means building the sides of the bookshelves as high as they can go and placing the shelves based on the smaller sized books we have. The top shelf can then be used for a decorative object or to put more books. The first three columns of shelves are for smaller books, the fourth column for odd/oversized books, and the last three are for the standard format books.

Keep in mind this set up isn't a bibliophile's dream. It means the books cannot be placed on the shelves with the same organisation. For example alphabetical order or the Dewey Decimal System is not an option. In the end I think this is the most practical option because it allows us not to waste the space under the slant in the roof and will display the books in a sort kooky way without losing the whole "wall of books" impact your library can give to your apartment or house.

"Books are awfully decorative, don't you think?"

from Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell (a must see)

Whatever your budget or plans, look online for inspiration, and for the DIY-ers to get material and construction tips. Stand alone bookshelves and customised bookshelves can be very expensive and in my experience places like IKEA have cheap options but they look cheap very quickly. I bought some cheap temporary bookshelves made of particle board in February and already in July they have bowed dramatically in the center. We're only renting, so we plan on using good quality hardwood that we can take with us when we move to either reuse as shelving or for another project. Keep this in mind as you build because while a great bookshelf is very cool, wasting wood and depleting the world's forests not so much.

As we say in France, bon courage (literally good courage, but really means "crap you have something difficult ahead of you, I hope you survive and/or get what you want)!