We have some "discrepancies" in our ceiling for the kitchen and what we are doing with our crown molding is that the crown will be mounted onto a rail and the rail mounted to the top of the cabinet - and that rail piece will grow or shrink as necessary - we have a 1/4 inch discrepancy with one cabinet, so on the one edge, we will see about 1/4 of an inch of the rail and on the other edge, we will see about 1/2 of an inch of the rail. The crown itself remains level with the ceiling. I will tell you that YOU are likely the only one that will notice most of those discrepancies once everything is in place. Most people look at crown molding and see that it's there and it creates a finished look, but they don't look at the intricacies of the crown unless you get something super elaborate.

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!

We took standard tall kitchen cabinets and laid them side by side to make a half wall, think we used 5 cabinets. Put a nice wood top on them and covered the backs with plaster board so they look like they had been there forever Finished off the ends. I made sure the cabinets opened on the foyer side so I could put furniture up against the cabinets if I wanted to. When we sold that house the lady that bought it was thrilled with the extra storage space and the thought that went in behind it. It was much better than the faux planter/room divider that had been there. Even DH who normally doesn't say much about the projects I want done in the house had to admit they were a good choice. We had considered doing a bookcase type thing BUT honestly it wasn't open storage I wanted or needed but hidden. This foyer was right off the dining room and kitchen and it was ideal for small appliances, platters, occasional stuff that I wanted close at hand but out of sight.

Thanks for your questions Sammy. Glad you have some experience in this arena. I like to support craftspeople in the USA, protect forests, and I have reactions to adhesives and off-gassing after going through chemo, so try to avoid composite or engineered. All of the rest of our furniture is antique and solid wood and I just like the heft and feel. The window corner is problematic as you noted, and there is a heat register in the corner behind the spindle chair near the window. The wall is 130" long. I'm thinking of having made three pieces that will be pushed together and centered on the wall totaling 106", leaving 12" on either side. It won't have a built in look necessarily but I think I am ok with that. It would also enable us to reuse the bookcases in different locations when we move into a condo in NYC sometime in the next 8 years. I saw this pic as inspiration for three separate units pushed together. This one is a total of 108". (It is way too ornate for my tastes.) Our floors are crooked - 165 year old house. So I'm concerned that with three together they will look wonky or uneven. What are your thoughts? Any other ideas on how to deal with the window corner?