Built in bookshelves for our library

I've wanted a wall of bookshelves for a long time, and when we bought this house I knew exactly where I would install them: the small formal dining room.

It only took me almost two years, but I've finally finished them. Part of the reason it took so long for me to finish them was that it took me awhile to figure out how to make them look built in, without actually making them built in. Since we know we won't be in this house for the rest of our lives, we don't want to do anything too permanent. While we might love our library with its shelves of books, someone else might prefer having a dining room. 

As a result, I left all the trim and moulding in place, and had to work around it. I built four boxes with cross braces in the middle and at the top and attached thin plywood to the back. I built a base of 2x4's to rest the shelves on and give a place to attach  the baseboard. 

I put spacers between the outside walls of the shelves and the walls of the room, compensating for the chair rails. The outside box of the shelves only goes to the lower edge of the crown moulding so it doesn't cut into it. I marked off the studs and screwed the cross braces in the middle and top of each box to the studs. I also screwed the sides of the boxes together and screwed the base of the boxes to the 2x4 base. It's very solid! It'll be a pain to take apart, but it will be doable if it's necessary. For perspective, the wall is 10' wide by 8' tall.

The other reason this took me so long is that the materials were not cheap. It took awhile to buy all the materials, and I bought materials as I needed them, which helped spread out the cost. I didn't keep exact  track of the costs, but here's the materials I used:

4 sheets of 3/4" oak cabinet grade plywood
3 sheets of 1/4" pine plywood
2x4's were recycled from the kitchen cupboard demo- they were previously used to support the cabinets on the ceiling
12' length of crown moulding
3 - 8' lengths of trim (I used various sizes and types of trim to give a nice finished look to the shelves)
2- 8' lengths of trim
3- 7' lengths of trim
3- 8' lengths of trim
1- 8' length of baseboard (I already had a 2' piece to make up the difference)
1x2's for cross braces= I already had them
1x3 for curves at the top of each box= I already had it
two tubes of caulk
1 bottle of gorrilla glue wood glue
box of 2" screws
box of 3" screws
box of 1 1/4" screws- I already had
can of white paint
can of primer (I had a partial can that wasn't enough)
16 lengths of 7' metal shelf strip things
6 pkgs of clips for shelves
1 more sheet of 3/4" oak cabinet grade plywood for more shelves

I did consider taking the easy way out and just using some shelves from IKEA, but they're made of mdf, and I really don't think that mdf holds up well in the long run. It would be a bit cheaper in the short run, but in the long run it would not have been as satisfactory. I also thought of using pine boards like I did for the basement shelves, but pine is softer than oak and the boards warp easily. So I ended up  using cabinet grade oak plywood.

All trimmed out and caulked. I used our Dremmel to sand down the edges of the crown moulding to make it match as closely as possible. It's not as good a match as it would be if both pieces were cut to fit, but it's pretty close. And caulk camaflouges a multitude of sins :) I did the same thing with the pieces of trim that go over the chair rails.

I made the shelves out of the same oak cabinet grade plywood that I used for the boxes, and I used screen trim on the outside edge to give it a nice finished look.

I used the same metal strips and shelf clips that I used in the shelves I built in the basement. I considered other options, but I wanted to be able to adjust the shelves to accomodate different sizes of books.

The most time consuming part was painting all the shelves: 27 to start with, 9 later on. I primed and painted both sides of each shelf- two thin coats of primer plus 2-3 thin coats of semi-gloss. I propped the shelves on the clips (without actually inserting the clips fully since they’re a bear to get in and out and I knew I’d need to move them) so the paint could cure. I left them to cure while all the furniture from the living room was crammed in the library while I painted the living room.

When we finally got the furniture out of the library, we were able to get the books onto the shelves. It’s so nice to finally have the stacks of books off the floor! It only took a year and a half to get too that point…. I posted about sorting all our books here.

Once I sorted all the books and got them on the shelves, I realized I needed some more shelves. Ugh. So I had to cut more shelves, prime, paint, and wait for the paint to cure. Then I could finally finish organizing the shelves.

(the fabric at the window is a scrap tacked up so I could see if I like it for a curtain)

looking into the library from the kitchen

looking into the library from the front entryway

As you can see, we have a ton of books. The shelves are almost all full, so I didn't bother trying to "style" the shelves. I just put a few items I've collected in the few open spaces and called it good. I've seen some walls of shelves that were so "styled" that there was maybe a hundred books total and lots and lots of decorative items. Totally not my thing.

I moved the loveseat in here, but I'd like something a little smaller, like a fainting couch or chaise lounge. This works for now, though. The loveseat will go to my sister when she moves this summer, so I'll figure out something different then.

It’s so nice to finally have the library looking so much better and functioning as I’d like. I still need to hang pictures and curtains, but that's true for all the rooms.

I love how it turned out!

The library is north facing, so it doesn't get great light, so it's a little difficult to get pictures that are clear and well-lit.