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)!

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Spice Racks & Pot Racks

I like to think I'm a serious cook. I can make just about anything provided I've tried the dish before (I call it reverse food engineering) and once I've got the basics, I can adapt recipes very easily. In Paris one has to learn how to cook in their kitchen because space is more often than not the issue. 

My first apartment in Paris for example had a nice stove and a dishwasher but there was only one small sink, one small section of counter space that was at a practical level, an island counter that could only be used by giants, and almost no place to put the refrigerator.

My second apartment in Paris had more counter space and lots of cupboard space, but was narrow enough that two people couldn't stand back to back. It was more of an alley than a kitchen and opening the cupboards or the oven was a problem. There were two stove burners in the counter, which was a nice space saver, but two burners means your timing for different parts of the meal had to be planned perfectly.

The kitchen is a bit weird in my third flat as well. The sink area is recessed in the back of the kitchen with a smaller four burner stove with oven and a counter for working that is about three feet long. There isn't ample cupboard space though, and this is where the problem begins. When I bought the dishes and pots and pans I had plenty of cupboard space.

The celings aren't high enough, even at my underwhelming height of 5'5 (165 cm) for a hanging pot rack and there isn't a lot of extra space. In New York I didn't have a problem with the ceiling height being too low, in fact it was the opposite. I couldn't find a pot rack with long enough chains so I would actually be able to reach my pots and pans without sucking down human growth hormone shakes or needing a ladder.

What I decided to do was make the most of the limited wall space. I bought some grid wall, normally used in stores and boutiques (see an example here: Gridwall ) and then sorted out all my pots and pans from what could be hung up and what couldn't. You can buy "s hooks" just about anywhere and they're cheap. Buy a few extras if you think you'll buy more pans during your time in your apartment or house. Then simply attach the gridwall securely to the wall (use anchors) and use the entire grid to hang up your things.

That's one problem solved. If you're in France you could probably find the gridwall at any Bricorama or Castorama, but if you're in Paris (or other parts of Europe) you can make use of a wonderful place called Retif that sells equipment for stores and boutiques. There is a hitch, which is you're supposed to be a "professionel", but it's easy to get around by saying you'll FAX them your VAT (tax identification number for businesses) at a later date. I have a VAT number and an account there, but I've brought friends to buy stuff and it worked out fine. I did a search for "grille", since grid wall doesn't translate exactly (grille mur would be the closest translation) and came up with all these inexpensive results: Grille Mur.

Now one other problem remains. The spice rack.

Getting a pot or pan from an elusive cupboard or rack is much less of a pain in the derriere than having to sort through all your spices when time may be of the essence. At the moment I have a small shelf above the stove where I keep all my spices. It's quite an ecclectic collection of repurposed Bonne Maman, mustard, and other condiment jars and coffee cans and basically anything that can hold spices. In other words, the aesthetics of my spice jars means very little to me. What I want is enough space to keep all the spices I use in my everyday cooking, which varies from spices for French, Korean, Japanese, Indian, American, Creole, and Mexican.

A Google image search leads me to believe that many people don't have my same problem. Every photo I get when I search for "creative spice racks" looks more elegant than my collection of haphazard jars and bottles deserve. Where is the form that meets the function?

If you have a creative spice rack idea you've been dying to share, I am dying to know. Otherwise I can already envision the chaos that will take over my soon-to-be kitchen. As of now, I'm thinking a wire basket placed on top of the fridge is going to be the temporary solution.

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