I don't think there's a room we don't have books in, as we all love to read in this family!
In our MBR, I store my decorating books and many others on the top shelves of our armoire and in the credenza I have in my reading area next to the fireplace. Love that spot!
{{!gwi}}
In DD's room, I had two tall cabs built in, with a window seat between them. The left cab holds clothes; the right is filled with her books, top to bottom.
{{!gwi}}
In the guset room, I store our collection of Western novels (Tony Hillerman, Louis L'Amour, etc.) and my Western art books, plus more.

Oh, Lynne, I love every picture I've seen in your house. Thanks for sharing. You have some really nice pieces spread throughout the home. That reading nook in your bedroom looks so cozy! Just the place to look at decorating books. I wish I had your space--someday perhaps when the kids move out, I'll be decorating a guest room. That is a thought to add a piece with doors in the LR--perhaps I could off load the albums there. Hmmm. If I can spread them out a bit more then I would have room to intersperse with some decortive items. I love keeping all my cookbooks together too. With our kitchen remodel I added shelving over my message center for the kitchen books, phone books, etc.

This is in my DR.

I used 3 assemble it yourself inexpensive bookcases from Target.
The shelves have gotten away from me of late - the top is opulent because I like how it all looks when the sun comes in the window.

Jim

Jim. I love it! It has so much personality to it and shows off the things you love.

I'm completely changing this very soon. And it has been seen way too many times. But this is how it stands today.

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Funny, I thought you were talking about record albums!

Here's the family room as right after it was painted ...

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Here's my "in-law" room ...

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Another shot of the family room ...

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I have the majority of my books in one of my extra bedrooms upstairs that I turned into a video game room for my son. He does not appreciate their ambience.

Books that I probably won't read again because I can't see the title:

I have books on a hutch in living room and the most of the rest are on bookshelves on the 3rd floor- the mess- or tucked into cabinets here and there.

daisy- are those field hockey girls in that painting I see there???

Yes, Cooperbailey I guess they are. They are part of my Roybal collection.

Here is a link that might be useful: I have way too many of these things!

We have books in every room, and in cupboards. Happy to share photos, but my rooms are all "befores," and you'll need to excuse the mess. :) Here are just a few:

Our den/library (really a family room, but we use the living room as the TV room in order to make room for all of our computers and books):

(We store our CDs in the bottom drawers of the barrister bookcase -- no albums anymore; we got rid of our vinyl in the last move.)

Cookbooks in the kitchen:

Current reads on the nightstands/dresser:

More books in the living room entertainment center (along with our DVDs). Some of the kids' books are in the baskets next to the entertainment center:

The kids each have a bookcase in their rooms, and we have a built in cabinet that stores kids' books in their hallway. No pictures of those yet.

Here's some of mine:

Is there anything better than a good book? I am thinking of joining the Springville book club here. They meet once a month at the library which use to be the Blacksmith here in town over a hundred or more years ago. It still looks pretty shabby. lol

OT: Pamghatten - that blue color is fab! Can you tell me the name of it?

saraschlos_remodeler: You are holding out on us--or are these from your previous house? I see some very nice bones in these pics and some lovely furniture. I remember that little slipper chair from one of your old homes--was it from your single days? I WANT that barrister bookcase. It's a nice piece of furniture in addition to storing a ton of books and I like the bottom drawers. Do you know where you bought it? What are the measurements? That is now my inspiration.

pamghatten: Those built-ins look wonderful and your turquoise walls are stunning.

daisyadair: What I wouldn't do for a spare room for all our stuff.

newdawn1895: What's to change? A very nice arrangement and makes me rethink built-ins in the LR.
teacats: That is a very nice arrangement. Are all the mags decorating ones? I like the chair too.

Just wanted to clarify. I meant photo albums, not record albums. Almost all tapes are phased out, we have lots of CDs, though most new music we now purchase electronically and put on the iPods. For that matter, all new pics, we store on the computer now and we are very derlict in printing pics and updating the photo albums--but at one point I was creating a single photo album for each calandar year after we got married plus a special album for each of our children with pictures of their milestones. I must admit, I'm about 7 years behind on that project.

Yes -- all decorating mags along with various and odd, various and sundry decor books too!

I do have a standing lamp there -- and that one (a VERY old one from DH's grandmother) has been sent to the reading chair in the guest room.

Jan

teacats: That is a bit like I was envisioning--a wider bookcase with a cozy chair in front of it plus a lamp. Now if only shesharee will tell me where she got her barrister bookcase, I'll be set.

Thanks, val. Those are photos from the current house. We have nice furnishings, just an ugly house to put them in.

The barrister bookcase is from Ethan Allen. It has inset glass shelves, so they market it as a curio cabinet. I double checked -- thre drawers are slightly too short for the CDs, so we have them on the bottom shelf and we have paperbacks in the drawers.

Here's quite literally the first thing you see when you open my front door--the bookcase in our foyer. I *love* this unit; it took me forever to find a really nice bookshelf unit. Seems like few people want true bookshelves nowadays, rather than armoires, tv stands etc...

What a fun thread. I love to read. Always have. I assistant taught reading for seven years and have already started teaching our 8 month old grandson to read so seeing all these books in your homes is awesome!
When planning our home hubby and I decided we needed a library. Once we found a floor plan we liked I got busy changing things to make that come to fruition. What is now our library was to be a dining room. It's not finished yet, but this is part of what our books will be stored in. We'll be building more (doorless) bookcases on either side of these. This pix was from Craigslist where I found this set of three for $300.00. We've restained them to match our woodwork. They will be built in with baseboard at the bottom and display area above them topped with crown molding.
{{!gwi}}
Since we both read often I placed baskets on the shelf of our night stands to hold books that are waiting to be read. You can see them here in this picture that was taken after we first moved in. Though I've still not gotten to decorating it the way I've done so in my head.
{{!gwi}}

auntjen: it's actually more of a teal, and it's a Benjamin Moore color. I'll have to find the name.

Bookcases in almost every room of my house, which I go thru regularly and donate to the local library.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to show your book storage. There are so many different and creative ideas here and it is refreshing to see how enjoy and display their books collections!

runninginplace: What a lovely bookcase. I wish I had the room for that one!

justgottabeme: What a fabulous find on CL for your library! Do keep us posted on how the library turns out.

shesharee: I found the curio/barrister bookcase last night in my Ethan Allan catalog. Unfortuntely, the height will be 1/2" higher than my window trim plus the glass shelves probably won't work so well with my heavier books; nevertheless it is a great inspiration photo. I know how frustrated you are with your home right now; but it does sound like you are putting together a plan to tackle the most glaring items. I do hope you are able to get the FP repaired as well as carve out a section for the refrigerator. We almost bought a house a few years back that had a lovely kitchen remodel, but tiny spot for the RF like yours as it was remodeled by DINKs. At least your kitchen is old so you can alter the existing cabs with idea this is a short term fix until you have the funds/time to do it right--meanwhile you will have lives in the kitchen and can figure out what does and does not work from more of a design/functional perspective. I can deal with an ugly house as creativity and ingenuity can solve that one over time, it's one that doesn't function well that would drive me nuts. I really appreciate the more practical aspects of your den/library and though I have my "pretty" formal dining room (after living in our house for 17 years--for 10 years it was a playroom), there is a part that wishes I'd put that space to a more practical purpose like yours.

Val -- I store my law school and art books in the barrister bookcase without any problems. The glass is inset into a wood frame and very thick and sturdy. Of course, if it doesn't work, there are many barrister bookcases out there. I liked the doors on that piece, as it helps keep out the dust that comes with having lots of books. The built ins we have now are original to the house and need to be replaced because they are badly designed. Too high to be useful as desk space and too deep to be useful as bookcase space.

Val, We have bookcases in all the bedrooms. They are mostly filled with my kids college books etc...Our bedroom has a big 14 ft long bookcase.
What was missing in our house was a bookcase for my technical and hobby books. Above my desk, I had two bookshelves, they constantly looked sloppy and drove me crazy, not to mention the top shelf was impossible reach and to keep neat.
So, we make this bookcase/secretary to match my roll top.
The end cabinets have books inside as well and I also keep my cameras and my 25ft tape measure on the right side. :)The little drawers were an after thought and not in my original design, they sure come in handy for little things like batteries and my battery charger.

This dvd cabinet is on the other side of the right door and mirrors the style of the secretary.
I favor glass doors for bookcases, the books stay clean and hardly need dusting inside.

This is the kitchen cook book cabinet. It has two shelves inside and I keep on the top -- the most frequently used books. The little cabinet on top of the cookbook cabinet houses a 23' flat screen tv, another after thought.
First i bought a 15" flat screen tv to put on top of the cookbook and then 'ding' I thought of a cabinet to nestle the tv inside.
We are currrently reworking our tv cabinet (next to the dvd cabinet) to accomiate a bigger tv...don't ask...
We're famous for doing everything backasswards!

Do you want glass on your bookshelves?

Joann

joanne: I wish we had your talent and could design our own--not to mention our office (another project we are starting now kids are back in school). I do like the idea of glass, though perhaps not a good idea with kids? I like the look of shesharee's barrister style bookcase as it looks like a nice piece of furniture, though so does runninginplace's bookcase, though I do not have the scale for that. We have the transom window to work around--perhaps I should get two smaller bookcases and butt them together. Talk about backasswards--so many things in our remodel are that way now that we've been doing the decor/furniture for the past year. Did you see my thread on my family room where now we've swapped the TV to the other wall and need to redo the wiring, etc? The bookshelves are all related to finishing the family room and our need for more seating in that room. Gosh, I could really use your talents--we need chairs, too!

Chairs you say!!! I love chairs. :)
Val, If there was an Olympic category for doing things backasswards, we would bring home the gold!
I will post the tv unit re-do when we finish, we've made so many changes along the way that I lost count of them.
We have made so much stuff, that I thought this would be an easy project...don't ask. Hope I'll still be married after this is done :)

Val, Here is our daughters custom built bookcases in her family room.
She has cabinets on the bottom and open bookcases on the top. Note that she stopped short of the windows by a little bit. In the lower cabinets she has storage.

I like that as well. Did you make her the chair on the left? It has your trademark. My other bookcase has the doors on the bottom, though it is higher and will need to go. I'm not sure how it will look since I can only go to around 55"H to do the bottom doors. I just spoke to the furniture store that made our ent. console as I want to have a hutch made for it and I also want to have them quote on doing a custom bookcase (similar to the barrister style) to match. Perhaps you can help me out. Here is our latest flubup:

{{!gwi}}

After two years we finally realized the TV needs to be on this wall and so need to redo all the wiring (temporary cabling is on to the right and why the DVR is sitting on the little table). We had this console custom made last year--only in it's present location, it really needs to be encased in furniture as it looks awful from the right side.
The furniture company said they can make a hutch for it, but there is not enough room to do anything on the sides. I was hoping to do DVD/CD pullouts, but they say they need more space than we have. The TV itself measures out at 50", the console is a 68" console (top measures 70"). I am wondering if there is still some way to retrofit the DVD pullouts in more of a frameless way. It just seems not only a better look, but a better use of space. I'd prefer the top to look more like this with some narrow storage on the sides:

{{!gwi}}
instead of this:

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Do you think it's possible? We've already done our kitchen so I do know it's possible to retrfit cabinets with other insides.

This is what the pullouts would look like:

{{!gwi}}

Do you think it's possible with approx. 9" per side or I should just give it up? Do you have any other ideas what to do with that space? Or just leave it open in case we get a larger (God forbid!!) TV in future?

Honestly, I keep as many as possible in my office at work. Right now, I stashed the ones I have at home in the bottom of my new curio. I'll find a place to tuck them away at some point.
{{!gwi}}

Val, isn't that funny. we're working on our tv unit as well. we gave our 50" dlp to our son and bought a 52" LCD that is thinner about 4" deep (the dlp was 14" deep.
I have a 50" bottom and the tv is 52" wide, so we're making a new top.
Anyhow, the Company is right there is not enough room for slide out trays,(drawers/trays need a lot of room for the slides inside)...however, there is enough room for an enclosed cabinet on each side, each cabinet being 8" wide with glass doors.
I'm working on your drawing and will post it as soon as it's done...and it can be done, however the cabinet would need European hinges inside (to save room)
I just took pic's of out wine cabinet that is (" wide and I'll show you. The drawing will follow as soon as it's done.
I'll post photos as soon as I size them.

Joann

Here is a rough drawing. The side cabs are 8" wide the rails and styles are 1 1/2" wide. the glass in the doors wil be 5" ... The cabs are in the same line as the bottom cab. The side cabs are 10" deep -- that's what I'm making mine, however you can go deeper. The top has a nice wood mantle where you can display stuff.
I shaded the tv area.

For furthur visual aids. this is my kitchen pantry cab...the attached wine cab is 9" -- and this is what it looks like

The Euro hinges will allow you to get a 8" cab in the two areas. Note the door comes to the very edge of the cab (because of the euro hinges).

Euro hinges

The mantle top we're making for our tv cabinet will mirror the dvd cab pictured a few posts pack.

Joann

Joann: Thank you so very much for helping me work out the design. I'm working with a furniture store that contracts through various custom furniture manufacturers--but there is nothing like talking to someone who is experienced making furniture themselves. This is so helpful as DH and I plan to go to the store this weekend and they can tell me what they can do. It makes a lot of sense to skip the pullouts in favor of a shallower top hutch and just store the DVDs on shelves. Another thing I'll like to add if you think it would look nice is shelving above the TV as well. I need to offload some items from my two bookcases and I was thinking I could put some of the photo albums up above plus some decorative items as well. For that plus I measured the depth of the base platform of the TV, I think 12" deep would work better. Here are the albums:

{{!gwi}}

I think the blue ones may be too tall to make a nice hutch, but the red albums need about 12"H to store. What do you think?

That is a nice idea to do a glass door so you can see the DVDs.

What do you think of any puck lights? They said they can add them if I want them. Any thoughts on how to do the upper bridge--open, closed, doors?

Below are a few pics of my lower drawers which I thought you may be interested for your own project. One thing we liked about this company was how nicely they designed the drawers to accomodate DVDs and CDs and they are full extension (which I'm sure you do as well).

I still have a lot of DVDs in the lower portion of the bookcase, but we will need to offload that as well so the extra storage will be useful.

Oops, I forgot to mention that the console is 31"H, the TV is 31"H and the ceiling is 8". What would you suggest for a good finished height taking into account a bridge above the TV plus crown?

Val, I don't know if this will be helpful to you at all, but since we have shelving on either side of our TV (I forget how wide it is, 50" or 52" I think) and shelving above, I thought it might help. (Please ignore the rabbit ears -- that's a sore spot around here!)

hoosiergirl: Yes, it does help a lot. Thanks for sharing the pic.

Val, no lights, unless you're not to fill the end cabs completely with dvd's ...but you can put a wall light on either side of the unit :) go shopping... :)
I did another rendering of your unit that I'll post in a few minutes as soon as I size it.

I added glass to the sides of the dvd cab and the top book shelf. I love glass in my wood pieces and whenever I can design my pieces with glass, It gives it life, brightens the piece, adds interest, makes it look lighter and yada yada...

Took all these in a hurry this morning...I am going to work as soon as I post this...
Note, I put glass on the sides...
I made the top bookcase 12" deep x 12" high.
Notice the entire new addition (vertical lines) follows the same line as the end of the buffet bottom

I drew the albums inside the bookcase :) in case you're wondering ...

Living room curio sides, glass with a straight top over the glass

secterary unit..end cabs are 9 1/2 deep -- middle cab is 12" deep
I didn't make the glass sides go all the
way down cause besides books -- I planned on storing junk on the bottom. I love curved wood and glass.

The dvd cabinet is only 8" deep, again cured glass and wood.
If it we're deeper than 8" I would have put small wood strips in the back of the shelves to make the dvd'd come closer to the front glass...that is an option for you..(these wood strips can just lay in there and be easily removed.

Val, Note how all the top wood mantles overhang the piece both front and sides. They are all at least 3 1/2" high...This adds a lot of architectural interest...It's hard to show this in a flat drawing, like I did for you.
BTW the entire unit measures out about 80" high.

OK, off to work....Joann

one more shot of the LR curio...
the glass lets in light and brings the piece to life.

Joann: Thank you for the design and all of the example pics. You and your DH are really very talented. Did either or you ever do this work professionally or is it a hobby? Thank you for highlighting all of the architectural details. That is exactly what I need to see. DH and I were debating about this glass as the side panels are quite narrow so your pics are very helpful to visualize the whole effect. I should mention here that this is not a fully custom shop. We basically get to pick different door/cabinet styles, wood species/stain/hardware, height/width, drawers and component configuration so I may not be able to order some of the lovely design details you incorporated, though I will bring in the pics and inquire about it on Sat. I did notice the bottom doors on the console are not full overly which it looks like you designed for the sides. I'm going to guess my top option will not be full overlay so we'll see. Also, my hinges are not the euro style on bottom and stick out the sides. Wouldn't they need to match? As the TV is 50" wide, I was thinking of having the center opening be 51". Then in the vertical direction with the TV height at 31" I was thinking we should add a bit of beathing room--say about 3" extra on top so the TV box would then be 51"W x 34"H. I think I'll check the TV specs to see any ventillation requirements, though I know DH wants some holes in the back for cables, etc. I notice hoosiergirl's TV is very tightly set into the built-in. I'll let you know what they come up with when we go in over the weekend.

Well I guess I even went about this whole thing backasswards and I should KNOW better as we've already installed a built-in microwave and I know there are specs for ventillation...... Just got off the phone with Sony and verified it in their instruction manual and they recommend 4" per side and 11-7/8" above. I'm not even sure it makes much sense to build anything around this big old honkin' TV. :( Back to the drawing board.

Well, I'm photo challenged, but we have books in all rooms except the bathrooms. And I'd be embarrassed to post pictures even if I could!

We have way too many books!

Our best books and photo albums we keep on a 1930's glass fronted bookcase in our formal sitting room. Other truly valued books are in an antique oak glass fronted bookcase in the family room. We have an older home so this works and these were both family pieces. I love the glass for keeping these books and albums protected from dust.

Ripe for *recycling* books go in two oak open fronted bookshelves in the guest bedroom. Guests are encouraged to take them away, but I also clear these annually for donation to our library sale.

We have 4 pine bookshelves on our upstairs landing. These were made by a lady called "Martha" to our specific needs.

One wall of our master bedroom and 3 walls of our office space are furnished with books on industrial shelving. So sue us, but it is functional and no-one (usually) sees it. That reminds me. I have to go and cull the collection again for donation. In our house books breed like rabbits!

Well hmmmm... I have no ventilation on the ides and I'm going to have about 3" above the unit after we install the mantle top. On our sides we have inserted panels. I am now thinking of taking out the wood panels on the sides (after what you just said about the ventilation) and putting in some wire mesh (I spray paint it bronze) I'll have to talk to Cliff when he gets home.
I think we have the same TV 52" (it's 50" wide) sony? My other one was a 50" and it was 47" wide.

Another option for you is to build a separate unit for the tv and dvd cabs and top bookshelf (Just picture it the same
only two pieces) and install it on the wall separately several inches above the buffet. This way you can make it even wider -- it would hang over the the sides of the buffet a few inches on each side....say for instance if you could only purchase the side cabs (for the dvd's) in 12" . . .
It would look fine to have Euro on the top cabs (to save room) They are not visible at all, unless you open the doors to look for them.
We used all Euro on our kitchen cabs, except for the tv cab and the cookbook cab in the breakfast room. I designed a three cabinet door for the tv and had to use special hinges for the doors to fold open, so I matched the cookbook cab with the tv cab.
It looks fine and I am very detail orientated. Cliff always says, Nobody could work for me but him!... and he means nobody!!! :)
Woodworking is one of our hobbies.
Joann

Yeah, I'm kinda bummed about this. I don't see why you need nearly 12" above. I'm sure lots make due with less. I could get rid of the sides, but for sure I'd want some storage on top. We'll see what the furniture store has to say on Sat. as they sell lots of console/ent. units all the time. Then again, we were both talking about a shallow hutch so perhaps that also makes a difference. If it did, I could bump ours down to 9" deep like yours. We have the Sony 46" but it's 50" wide. Here is the link to the specs. Select "Operating Instructions". It's on p. 6. They say if there is not sufficient ventillitation it could cause a fire or overheating. Not something to ignore IMHO. I'll talk it over with my DH tonight. He works for Sony (though not on Tvs), but may be able to check it out more closely with someone other who just is reading off the manual specs.

Amazing.... just a hobby.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sony Model Specs

val, we don't have a sony, but our 50" tv fits snugly inside the entertainment center; the frame of the TV niche almost looks like a picture frame around the television. We have had it this way for over a year now without any problems. I'm reposting the photo so you can take a look. There is probably about 2-3 inches on the sides, and maybe 1-2 inches above the television. Our TV is a DLP -- not sure if this makes a difference, but I have seen many Sony wall-hung TVs that also had frames (including store displays).

I just double-checked our manual to be sure that what we did was okay (I thought we had already done that, but wanted to be sure), and all ours says is to allow 4" behind the TV for ventilation. Ours is a DLP like Sarchlos_remodeler instead of a plasma or LCD, so maybe that's the difference?

Ours is an LCD--perhaps that's the difference. When we shopped at the electronics store last year all the high-end/tech ent. centers (like Salamander, etc.) were all just consoles so perhaps our orig. decision was the best one for today's (and tomorrow's) Tvs.

At this point we are leaning towards skipping the hutch since there will not be room for much (if any storage) given the clearances. I'm now thinking of putting some tall narrow vases with some dried flowers to either side (or at least on the right). I'll start a new thread on it in a few days looking for decorative ideas.

Good news is we moved the chair to the FR and it fits even with the bookcase there so the storage needs may not be as critical. I also tried Joann's trick of putting something in the back section of the console so the DVDs would be to the front--so we can store more DVDs there as we do not need space for 6 components (only 4).

hoosiergirl: I am so glad that yours is compliant since you have that lovely built-in. I guess that is something to keep in mind for the future should you decide to switch over to an LCD.