Source for very skinny bookcase or wood CD rack

14 years ago

I am putting together a home library. Two walls are to be all bookcases. The bookcases are all from Ikea, in a medium brown wood veneer.

However, since they are all assembled I am left with an odd space, of 6 1/ 2 inches. It looked like this was going to be simple: buy the bookcases, assemble them, arrange the books. Until I hit this snag. No matter how I move the bookcases around, that 6 Â½ inches looks peculiar, whether I put it at the end or somewhere in the middle. The wall is too "visually" solid to stuff in a vase or something. ItÂs too narrow to put in a lamp. Wide bookcases are exactly twice the size of narrow ones, so recombining widths does not help.

Width needed : 6 to 6 3/8", Height needed: 41 Â¾ to, say, 45-ish. If it were 45 or so, IÂd put a skinny little table lamp on it which I already have. Depth could be anything between 5 inches and 16.

Some kind of cd cabinet, wooden wine rack, or very skinny bookcase, between 5 and 6 Â½, would be ideal. Stability is not as issue, as it will be sandwiched between bookcases. I have hunted at Ikea, online all over, and in stores like Hobby Lobby that have all kinds of small, practically useless furniture, and canÂt find anything that will fit the space. Unfinished is fine, IÂd just stain to match; wrong color is fine, IÂd paint it. It looks like I need to adapt something, but what?

I have been racking my brains for 3 weeks now, and am completely stumped. How do you do a search for something like this when itÂs mostly a specific SIZE you are looking for? There must be some creative solution out there that is just escaping me.

Though IÂm no woodworker, I have built lots of things, but this is my busy season for work. I am under the gun to get this done before relatives come to stay.

Thanks for any help!

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Comments (7)

andrelaplume2
14 years ago
try ikea....?
linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author
14 years ago
IÂve been through everything they haveÂeven went aisle by aisle, in every department, with a tape measure.
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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 Â¾, 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.
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This is exactly what I did here in my office. The Billy bookcases fit perfectly, and the cost was WAY less than if I had custom-built them myself. Mine are black/brown, with two extension units on top that make them 9' high. In order to attach them to the wall, I added a horizontal piece under the top shelf of the main unit and screwed them to the wall like you'd attach a kitchen cabinet ... if that makes any sense. Ikea supplies L brackets for this, but I felt more secure doing it a more traditional way. I still have to trim out the bottoms. I have to cut and customize those pieces so I can extend the a/c vents in the floor, and I just haven't done it yet. I needed a little more width on the right hand side of this corner to make the shelves balance on each side of the window. We attached a CD rack between the two units to give us the extra width ... and a place to put our CDs. Hopefully, these photos show what you're looking for. Connie Here is a link that might be useful: house and garden blog
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Here's a thought: If your wood stove has a good viewing window, it would be wonderful to be able to sit on the couch and enjoy the fire. Fires are much more entertaining than t.v! : ) I miss relaxing conversations around the wood stove at our old house. (We have a wood furnace now, which is lovely for heat, not so much for ambiance.) This plan gives you a nice conversation grouping so that everyone can enjoy the fire while visiting. It also makes an entry of sorts, with a sofa table that could help hold items necessary by the door. It would be pretty with a matching pair of lamps on it. I'd love to see a simple chair, maybe between the corner cupboard and the garage door, for a place to sit while putting on or taking off shoes, but I didn't draw one in. Since you said tv watching isn't your main goal, I sidelined the television by the closet, next to the front window. If you get a wall mount unit, it can swivel out for watching a show, and then tuck back in unobtrusively when you don't want to focus on it. Below the tv could be shallower shelves that could hold books, cds, etc. Depending on the sofa table, some of these items could also go in there as well. The entire wall to the hallway is freed up for art. Maybe a gallery wall? Hopefully others will chime in with ideas soon. : )
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Try your LOCAL craigs list (under services offered/wanted or a LOCAL facebook page. Or see ana-white.com and see how easy it is to build a basic box and add shelves to it.
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Jon1270
14 years ago
It's hard to find this because there's not much reason for such a thing to exist. I think you're going to be stuck making it (or having it made). Alternately, could you space the bookcases apart so that there are small spaces between them, and bridge the gaps with some sort of trim?
sevenecho
14 years ago
Get another book case from Ikea and cut it down, or have it cut down, to fit. That way the finish would match. A buddy just did something similar with a Pax.
weedyacres
14 years ago
You might try posting this in the Home Decorating forum. They may have some ideas.
brickeyee
14 years ago
"Get another book case from Ikea and cut it down, or have it cut down, to fit. That way the finish would match."

How many bookcases are needed to fill the wall?
Adding another and decreasing the width of each one equally will avoid the odd narrow one at the end.

If you have to have a narrow one, hide it behind a door or nearest the door to the room.
No one looks behind themselves when entering a room.

Book case width is just the top, bottom, shelves, and back.
Not hard to cut down since all the cut edges are hidden anyway.
tzmaryg
14 years ago
Can you squeeze in 6 3/4"? If so you might look at the wider IKEA Benno DVD case. It is 15 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 41 3/4. I can't tell if it has a cut out for a baseboard or not (which might be a problem). You could turn it and run it across the end, so you would access the case from the side. Or, if you are very good at measurements, you could buy extra Billy shelves and shelf supports. Using two of the narrower cases, fit shelves (which you have cut to measure, 6 to 6 3/8") between them by drilling holes for the supports in the facing sides of the bookcases. Lock the top and bottom shelves to the cases on either side with angle irons or flat brace plates across the back. Go fancy (and more stable) by making a toe kick out of a pieces of extra shelving. Welcome to the society of kit bashers!

Source for very skinny bookcase or wood CD rack

Comments (7)

andrelaplume2

linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author

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sevenecho

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tzmaryg

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Source for very skinny bookcase or wood CD rack

Comments (7)

andrelaplume2

linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)Original Author

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Jon1270

sevenecho

weedyacres

brickeyee

tzmaryg

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linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author