I do things very much like you do in your way of dealing with books, Sunny43. I, too, love books, and have many "types" like you do, plus I re-read the favorites, and refer to books all the time as well. I also have a bookcase in my bedroom, plus a large one that I bought from a bookstore in the garage, and three 84" high bookcases I refinished in the livingroom. I, too, would love to have floor to ceiling bookshelves! I would love to have a whole library room just like that. I am thinking of revamping the one in my room, as I don't regularly read those, instead maybe I can put the current reading material on there, that is usually in a pile by my bed, do you think that would work for clearing away the pile by the bed? Then put the books that are now there on the other bookshelves, or in the garage. Speaking of the garage books, do yours get to smelling mildewy or moldy, or musty? Or does it depend on what kind of year round weather you have? When you say you have a built in bookcase in your livingroom, is it built into, attached to, the walls? The reason I ask is because I don't understand something--when I called around for a craftsman to "build in" a bookcase in my house, they all said they would make them on site (at their workshop) and then bring them in. To set in. To me, that's "free standing," as I thought "built-in" meant attached to the wall, thus when you move, you don't take it with you, as it's "built in?" Don't people do that anymore? Oh and I had asked for three, with top shelves and a little area that juts out a bit from the width of the shelves, so you could rest a book or a plant there, then underneath that, two doors with a shelf behind the doors. That was probably 3, 4 years ago and the one man said that would be $6,000 dollars, so I ordered three unfinished ones from the internet and re-finished them myself. Now I am going to order from the same people what they call a "cubby," to put boxes of video tapes and DVD's on. This way, I can set it in a 14" inch area next to the bookcases, and paint it to match! I am happy about that, as it will blend in well. I have a question for you all about that: It is a tall tower with I think six shelves, room enough to put two photo boxes on top of each other per shelf, (you can put 10 VHS tapes in those). You can get understated nice looking ones, (I have some in catalogs) but will that look too much like an office? This furniture website also offers baskets with liners, which probably would look nicer in the livingroom, but they are dust catchers and I would like to have lids, tops, on the containers as well. Also no see-through. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Oh, I enjoyed this thread! I have to add that the only room without books & bookcases is my bathroom & that's because it's too humid! The dining room I'd love to turn into a "library" but haven't managed to yet. Mine are sort of organized by topics within a bookcases. The two in the dining room hold all the field guides for birds, butterflies, wildflowers etc. Then there are two in the living room with (mostly) gardening. My bedroom has a row of shelves built specifically to hold paperbacks(double stacked)These are mostly beloved books that are read again and again. The breakfast room (who thought of a room just to eat breakfast in?) has two small shelves of series (mysteries)Oh and another shelf of cookbooks! The back bedroom holds all of my late mothers books-complete Agatha Christie & several other mystery series that I read occasionally. Then there are several miscellaneous (sp?) bookshelves scatteried where ever there is room-one of those tacky metal ones from college is in the hallway below where I hang my coats! Oh the livingroom has another one for dictionaries & other reference books. And after my mother passed away in 2005 I started a library at the facility where I work with mentally challenged adults-so I could clear space on the bookshelves (and I had a bad case of insomnia)Like most posters I can lay my hands on a book fairly quickly-of course some of them have been in the same place for 50 years so... Hope this is not too much information! I got a real laugh out of this as not all my close friends are readers & don't understand why I need all these books! Susan

That's great you have some help. I was thinking about your office today because I am working on mine and we have a few similarities as far as size and furniture - except I don't have all the great closet space you have! I think once you have the additional furniture in there you can play with where the desk should be. The good thing is you can shuffle it around as much as you need to until you find a look that feels right. If you don't already have some, you should pick up some of those sliders that you place under furniture to help move it around - they make it really easy for one person to move things around to try various configurations. I have several sets and they have been invaluable! In some rooms, we lived with those darn sliders under our furniture for weeks as we tried, lived with, and then changed up where certain pieces of furniture went.

I was also thinking you could take a couple of the matching book sets you have (like the one on the bottom shelf to the far right) and put them on the top with decroative book ends. That would give you more space on the shelves to spread things out and add some decorative elements. Below the bench I would look for some baskets to use for the small thin childrens books or storage of non-book items. Also note in the photo that I posted above that one shelf has the books laying down with a clock on top. This is a nice break to the eye and adds alot in interest to the shelves. Not every book has to sit up and down.