My husband built new bookcases and cabinets on either side of the fireplace and we got ride of the old entertainment center. All of the sound equipment went into the cabinets and the T.V. was moved downstairs (we hardly ever watch T.V. so we don't miss it in the living room anyway). This week's project is putting up all new crown molding in the living room and dining room - I'll post pictures when we're done with that part. It's shaping up nicely. BEFORE: AFTER:

I love what shelves filled with books do for a room! Bookshelves filled with books so they're not leaning and laying all over the place are nice and tidy, and rich, and exciting, and...whatever. However, bookshelves do look sloppy and cluttered when they're only partly filled with books that are slopping around like a bunch of teenagers who need some chores to do. They also tend to look cluttered and messy with fewer books interspersed with a variety of other stuff, which is a too-common practice that tends to gives bookshelves a bad name. People with this have to keep "designing" a nice layout, not always easy to achieve, then beating their family away from it to keep it from disintegrating into chaos. Since that last is what you're considering, including specifically the hands-on chaos, I agree that you'd probably be happier with covered storage there. Glass doors that could have fabric panels or frosted plastic sheeting added jumped into my mind, too, since that would allow you to do practically anything you want.

I see what you mean by the actual width of a CD. I have a skinny one made out of cheap wood that is less than 6" wide, I guess I was thinking that most were that width. The cheapie has thin wooden slats to hold the cds. If I did use a couple of those it would take a lot of dressing up before it looked even halfway decent. The Billy wall shelf WAS on my list of possibilities. Turned on itÂs side, though, at 13 ¾, itÂs an inch too wide. IÂm going on a field trip to Ikea tomorrow to look for other possibilities, and bring a sample shelf with me to check colors in other lines. I plan to stop at Hobby Lobby too. bronwynsmom, please go ahead! Get carried away! Maybe by brainstorming with all of you IÂll come up with the perfect thing. If I could find a wine rack with solid shelves rather than slats that would be great. The slats make it too obvious that itÂs meant for wine. Given that the room is upstairs, I donÂt think weÂd ever want to store wine there. Gets a little too hot and sunny in the summer. We store our wine in the basement (when itÂs not being used up too quickly to be stored). But that gives me another search term I can use. Possibilities! When I was redoing my kitchen a few years back I remember looking into a unit that would go horizontally underneath a cabinet that has small niches or cubbies. I think it was called a spice drawer unit. You could order it with or without drawers, or small wicker baskets. I dropped the idea then, because it was really expensive. Maybe I can find one again, without drawers, just shelves. WHY does every project I start turn out to be so COMPLICATED?!? And itÂs always some stupid little thing that stalls it.

marti8a: That is what we are planning to do with L-brackets since we are also in CA. We placed it so that the path should it fall is not over the bed area. sarschlos: It'll be there before you know it!! My oldest is 15-1/2; the youngest still leaves her toys strewn all over the house. I could've kept the other toy storage unit for another few years, but looking forward the bookcase makes much more sense for her and as I told DH if we store in the garage, by the time she'll be ready, it'll be trashed so here it is. The rest of her toys I'm trying to confine to here and a couple of bottom drawers in her dresser at this point. I did talk to her specifically about not climbing up to get stuff and I made sure to put everything she might like to handle on the lower shelves. The upper one is sure to fill with more trophies. Wait until you have that one to figure out! Trophy decor! If you play any kid's sport these days, you are automatically give a trophy so everyone feels like a winner.