Resources:
• IKEA — We love IKEA's shelving for the affordability and flexibility. For instance, the Stolmen line can be configured to include drawers and a desktop. The Billy bookcases can be joined together to create a look similar to the home pictured above.
• The Container Store — Elfa Shelving can come out of the closet! The modular shelving is now being offered in different wood tones and metal finishes, giving more flexibility for placement throughout the home.
• Atlas Industries — The AS4 Modular Furniture System is handmade from solid steel and solid hardwoods to give it more of a fine furniture appearance than some of the other options.
• Metro Shelving — For an industrial look, durable Metro Shelving is offered as both wall shelving and standing shelving units.
• Rakks — Rakks makes shelving that can be installed as wall shelves or with pole brackets for freestanding units.
• Vitsoe — British-made Vitsoe shelves are a design classic that have been around for 50 years. As with IKEA's Stolmen, Vitsoe shelving includes drawer and desktop components.
• DIY Plumbing Pipe Shelves — Head to your local hardware store and grab the supplies to build your own shelves using plumbing pipe. Add a green element by sourcing reclaimed wood for the shelves.
Tips & Tricks
• Measure, sketch & plan — Before ordering your supplies, take the time to measure your space, sketch out a plan and prep the area.
• Go high — We've mentioned it a number of times this week but it bears repeating. Using all the vertical space on a wall will not only give you lots of storage space, it will also make the room appear taller.
• Anchor away — Unless you're up for a home disaster, be certain to anchor the supports of wall shelving.
• Keep it neat — A wall of shelving will need some finessing to keep it from looking messy. If you're planning to store more than books on your shelving, stagger some decorative boxes and containers throughout. These containers can be used for small items to keep clutter contained.
• Go off the wall — If you're in a loft-like space, use a shelving unit as a room divider.
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I love the clean look of the white shelves mixed with all the fun and colors of the books and knickknacks. Shelves are a huge space saver and the look (of stacked shelving) can be accomplished so many ways. Great post.
Whenever I see a picture of a bookcase where the books are sorted by size or color, I immediately know that the person doesn't actually read or care about the books. This isn't storage, it's decoration. In other words, you might as well teat down those bookcases and replace them with a nice piece of artwork, because that's what you're using the books for.
Seriously, if you're going to write a piece about storage, how about using photos where the stored items are for actual use, not just for show?
Something about arranging books by colour disturbs me. Maybe it's because I work in a library and have respect for books based on their content not just their appearance. Anyway, if the people who own the books are happy to have them arranged like that it's their prerogative but I'll continue to sort mine in a manner that makes finding a particular volume the main purpose of the arrangement. Form and function should be in harmony to my way of thinking, neither subservient to the other unless there's a practical reason.
I did this in a corner of my tiny living room with 5 of the more narrow billy bookshelves with the extenders on top, painted them one shade darker than my gray walls and they look fabulous. The whole project cost me under $350 and now I have floor to ceiling storage and a cute little alcove to put an extra chair, rather than just an empty space
i would just like to say that the arrangement of books on my bookcase in no way undermines my love of them as books first and foremost. i am a strongly visual person; i remember books by the color of their covers just as much as i remember their contents. i do not buy books for their decorating value, i buy them because i want to read them. and i happen to like having them in color order on my shelves because i can actually find them faster. form and function come together for me in that way. to each his/her own, but in my home decoration and utility are not mutually exclusive.
Great post - thanks!
I second Kristenatcal -- I once tried shelving my books by color and I found them much easier to find (and perhaps more importantly, to reshelve). I am also a visual person who remembers the color of the book as easily as anything else. I do read my books and I'm not sure why you'd assume that someone who arranges their books by color does not.
I'd never arrange books by color simply because it makes it harder for people to find them. Friends like to browse my bookshelves and it's really hard for them to find a particular author if they have no clue what it looks like. It would be bothersome if they had to constantly ask whether I had a certain genre or a certain author because they couldn't determine for themselves how books were arranged.
i have wall-high shelving - used to have Billy, but they were not tall enough for my livingroom (11ft) - i constructed it with Ikea brackets and shelves, going all the way up, and around a corner of the room. i am planning to add a few more shelves soon to use the space above one of the doors. to save myself drilling huge numbers of holes into the walls i first screwed vertical slats to the wall, and screwed the brackets into those.
(i used to be prejudiced against books aranged by colour - but it really depends on how people perceive their books. i think it is inappropriate and rather conceited to guess from it that people do not love or read their books if they have a colour coded library. i would get lost if i did it - i have to keep books sorted by language, and author or genre, to be able to find what i am looking for, but i know other people can do it. it certainly can look nice. i did it with two shelves in my bedroom where the unread and hence unorganised book are shelved. two shelves i can handle :-P )
@AmyDC...if you really loved your books, you'd know what color they are and not have any problem finding them on a color coded bookshelf.
Here we go again with a 'people who arrange books by colour don't care about them' thread. WRONG. I have been an avid reader since I was five years old. What's more, I write books. I think that shows that I do care...
But I still arrange them by colour.
I realise that many people like to arrange them by genre, or alphabetically, or whatever but for me, colour coding books is a bit like surfing the net - you never know what you're going to find.
I might search Google for French impressionists and after a few clicks here and there find that I'm looking at a recipe for French onion soup by some strange and barely logical progression. By the same token, I can go to my bookshelves to get a French impressionists book and find that sitting alongside it is a book about Michael Schumacher that I spend a happy half hour re-reading.
I know that not everyone likes to be distracted in that way but I do!
I really love all my books and I could never remember what color they all are.
I also love books that arranged by color.
So all of you are wrong.
Oh, for the love of... can we please see an end to this petty bickering about how we arrange our books? It's pathetic, especially when some of you go as far as to suggest that if we can't remember the colour of our books we must love them less! Good heavens, five year olds have a more mature attitude to reading material than that! However we arrange them, we all love our books as much as then next person and I'm pretty certain that I'm not the only one to take one to bed with me from time to time...!
Now, assuming that this post is about shelving, I mentioned my favourite shelving in response to another post but I'm going to mention it here too because it's brilliant.... it's IVAR by IKEA. While I'm no slave to brands, I do appreciate a product when it works well for me. As a renter, freestanding shelving is about my best option. As much as I like the 'built-in' look, I need shelving that is versatile, easy to dismantle and to rearrange. It also needs to be load-bearing so that I can store my antiquated vinyl collection and my (dare I mention them) reference books. IVAR shelving is not only practical but also, for my tastes, attractive too, especially as the colour of the wood mellows over time (never got around to even varnishing it and it still looks good!)
Two questions - no three -
1. Does anyone even remember the subject of this post at this point?
2. Who gives a rat's rear how anyone chooses to organize his books?
3. Does anyone really believe that shelving pic was a random choice?
What amuses me immeasurably more than the thinly veiled traffic-bumping attraction of these frequently posted pics, is the seduction factor. It never fails to entice some to DEFEND their own choices. Why is that, do you think? Are these who continue to be lured to these posts time and time again judgmental? Or simply insecure in their individual design choices?
Mmm....I could look at pics of artfully arranged shelving all day long and never be bored and I don't care HOW the books are arranged. Just because something might not work for me does not mean I can't appreciate someone else's ideas or implementation. It's true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. HOWEVER, inspiration can be found everywhere.
Time to GROW UP:)
I also like IVAR the best; mine are painted white and look sooo good! (: Also, the flexibility is amazing; in one corner of my apartment I build over a radiator with the IVAR system- no Billy can do that!
What about the rug - where's it from???
Okay, getting back on topic... anyone know whether the Billy bookcases can have a more built-in look and not look so....Ikea? Mounting moulding to the edges, perhaps?
I'm so happy you mentioned the AS4 system from Atlas Industries. It's the best home-furnishing investment I ever made--beautiful, sturdy, and modular as hell. I moved a few years ago, gave half the units to the new owner, kept some for myself, and distributed the rest to two friends. Four happy households.
Well, however we arrange our books, or whatever methods we use to find them, don't forget to anchor the shelves to the wall in earthquake prone areas. That said, has anybody got a good method for keeping the actual books on the anchored shelves? Doors might work if they were latched but it would be handy to have some kind of netting or whatever to keep them in place. Hopefully not something hideous or difficult to use. I have a couple of bookshelves that would block doors if they fell so those were the first to be anchored, but the big pile of books that could end up on the floor might block the door too.
Love the organization of books by color. Very clean and eye-catching!
I can't bring myself to paint mine yet Y8 but I think that I'd probably go for white if I did - again it's about versatility and white is an excellent colour to go for.
PJFA, if I owned my walls and had the budget, I'd definitely convert to AS4 modular system. Instead, you inspired me to take a peak at it on Atlas Ind.'s website.... it's like 'shelving porn' !!
Short of relocating the book shelves, re-hanging the door so that it opens in the opposite direction or just removing it altogether, I really don't know how books could be made quake-proof. We (touch wood...or touch IVAR, anyway) don't really get earthquakes in the UK, just the occasional tremor (and frankly, that's enough!).
Oh yes, and Moderator - SPAM ALERT!!!
Many apartments don't come with wall shelf units; and most LLs will not allow you to install them if they are attached to the wall in any shape or form. Use bookcases if that be the case.
Living in small spaces requires that you cut back on the amount of 'stuff' you have displayed.
Ooh, that moderator isquick! Cheers! ;)
@PI: Check out Centsational Girl's post on what she did to her Billy bookshelves. She totally made them look built in!
I also want to know about the rug!!!
How tall are your ceilings? I was looking into the Billy to do a floor-to-ceiling set of bookshelves myself but alas my ceilings are 10 feet high and I believe even with the Billy extender, it will only reach about 8 feet. Did you have to use any extenders? I was thinking that maybe I could use two extenders but I'm not sure that that would actually work.
A type of shelving not mentioned is foldable shelving. There are some surprizingly strong models on the market. Plus it is easy to strengthen them yourself with common hardware items. I happen to like the half height shelves, because then I can add large art work on the wall above them. My shelves are a blond wood, not sure what kind, but real wood.
The second greatestest thing about these shelves were how easy it was to move. Recently, I bagged up all 1K+ books in sturdy Aldi shopping bags, folded my shelves and transported them to my new place in 3 trips with my car. Saved a lot of $ with this move.