Chelone's post inspired me to share something: we have almost no books in our house. (awaiting the gasps of horror!!) We recently donated most of what we will not read or use again to our local library. We make weekly trips to the library and are very well read, but you wouldn't necessarily know it to look at our house LOL. I was tired of dusting, storing, and caring for something that really could be enjoyed by other people. We also donated most of our DVDs. It was very liberating and freed up a lot of storage space for us. Now I have a small collection of cookbooks in the dining room, some computer language reference books in the office, and just one or two beloved fiction anthologies in the bedroom. Not a solution for everyone, but it really helped reduce the clutter in our house. It also saves a lot of money on purchases that may only be used/read once or twice. My shelves are only about 25% books, and 75% storage (baskets and boxes storing our camera, computer cords, greeting cards, sheet music, extra reeds, decorative dishes, and photos.)

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 also would go with a solid wood over particle board where kids are concerned. I had a lot of particle board furniture over the years because it was affordable. It will start to sag rather quickly, and if the kids rough-house around it, the hardware will start to pull out faster, and once that happens you cant' repair it. I'd go with the Target one over the Ikea on for the price difference. The Ikea one is painted particle board, and if if the paint gets scratched and then gets wet, the particle board will start to swell and come apart. The Target is painted wood. The Vallvik is also painted wood (I own two of them) and is very solid. It would be very easy to paint and add a back to the vallvik. When my kids were little I went with cheap, as I figured they were just as likely to scratch and mess up the expensive stuff. I have a really nice antique dresser that I used in my daughter's room for a while. If you get in just the right light, you can see, in childish script, her first name carefully scratched across the bottom drawer face. It's so light I never even noticed it until she was 20. Had the drawer out and it was in very bright light, the Mom in me thinks it's kind of nostalgic, I'm sure I would have been horrified had I caught her doing it when she was 6.

I was going to split them up, they're each only 19" wide and I have 24" to each side of bay. But now the seller says the crown is one piece, so I don't know how it would look to split them (though I was going to put the side with no crown against the wall, so swap the right and left as shown so "middle" was actually outside of each piece). I decided against built-ins for now since we are going to wait until we replace the carpet with hardwoods. Seemed easier to do it all at once (and we'll probably do a window seat then too). Plus even if my cousin built them it was going to be hard to find room to stain and finish two 8ft tall x 2ft wide x 1ft deep bookcases in the winter/spring. Now that it's summer I've been working on other pieces (waiting for good stretch of dry weather to take window sashes out and finish them - last week was literally making hay while the sun shone, this week has been finishing window casings for all the downstairs windows and a new continuous sill/stool for the bay, getting slider casing and baseboard installed. Plus *still* trying to figure out/get someone to install railing/newel/balusters (or at leas t a railing!) on our stairs, if you remember that thread from 9 months ago! I guess I'll keep looking for another matching Ikea shelf.