Living in a small space of course means having to pare down your belongings, but sometimes this can be difficult when it comes to artwork and photos. And of course we're not discouraging the practice of paring down, even when it comes to art, but adding a freestanding bookshelf that juts out into a room is rather like building an extra wall with more space to display the artwork you love.
Choosing a bookcase with a back provides a solid plane on which to create a new display. But an open bookshelf like the Ikea Expedit also can function this way: hang artwork on both sides of one of the Expedit "cubes," or use the shelf to display collections which would otherwise be packed away (taking up valuable storage space!).
The idea of creating a large barrier in a small room might seem counterintuitive at first, but if you use it to your advantage—establishing a workspace behind it, for example, or using it to divide your sleeping area from your living room—it will eventually feel like a permanent fixture.
Have you tried this small space solution? We'd love to hear your results!
(Images: Livingetc; Weddingbee; All You; queenieinmanhattan, via Apartment Therapy)
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2 great uses of these shelves is to separate open plan living/dining rooms, and to create an entry where your front door opens right into the living room, both unfortunately very common on the west coast, esp. if you are not rolling in money.
I am rather tired of seeing the Expidit everywhere I go, though, I wish I could see something new providing the same service.
I think the reason that people are seeing the Expedit everywhere is because it does what it does so very well. It has roomy shelves, solid construction, is incredibly customizable, and plays well with quite a few different decorating schemes. You can use it for a room divider, a bookshelf, entertainment center, storage, coffee table, even a window seat. And for what you can do with it, it's affordable for a lot of people, unlike a lot of other furniture out there.
No, I don't have one. But I'm definitely a fan. =)
Yeah, but it's getting terribly boring seeing it ALL the time. I used to like it, but now I think it's a bit clunky.
I love the idea of using bookcase to separate spaces, but using tall bookcases seems so claustrophobic. I'd rather see a low bookcase, which would just come to the top of a bed, for example. That way one could get the separation, but keep the visual of a larger room.
OK, let me just say that the clunkiness of the Expedit comes from the multiple cubes. A thinner shelving unit would LOOK different, more edgy or whatever, but (a) it would hold less and be less versatile, and (b) it would need to be stablized since it wouldn't have enough of a base to reliably stand upright without bracing.
Lots of other things could be used as a room divider. Folding screens, curtains, bead curtains, tall plants, cabinets, sofas, etc. Bear in mind that each use of an Expedit in a room is a solo thing -- just because you see lots of PHOTOS doesn't mean you see lots of Expedits! In each space, the decision is a one-off, and if it works for the room, that's all that matters.
I have nothing against Expedit, but this post looks like an Ikea ad. There are other bookcases being used as room dividers. The writer should have done more research to find other styles.
Yes, each use of Expedit is an individual event (if there is such a thing in mass consumerism). But this is supposed to be an edited selection showing multiple aspects of a theme. If it's an Expedit showcase, there's no point.
I think that if used as a bookcase, the Expedit actually wastes space as much as no other bookcase I've seen... the cubes are the right size for files, but they're much too big for your average book. Take a look at #4. So much wasted space!
Wish the Expedit system had been around in my post-graduate/starving student days in NYC, back in the early-mid 70s.
I used an open back bookcase (also known as an etagere) made of taxi cab yellow plastic (designed by Heller) to create a room divider in my 300 SF studio apartment. It was not as spacious as the Expedit, nor as versatile.
Looking at the pictures here, what stand out as successful systems are the ones that are neatly and colorfully arranged, such as #2 and #3.
In picture #1, we have a hot , sloppy mess. Number 4 is just "eh."
Nice, but what about earthquakes? This is SF after all.... how would u all secure it?