bookshelves need help
We saved these built-in shelves when we renovated our kitchen. We moved them to the living room. I am not happy with how they’re decorated. What can I do?
Comments (15)
wich
3 months agoRelated Discussions
Help with bookshelves
Comments (18)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!...See MoreNeed advice re: installing wall-mounted bookshelves
Comments (3)The problem is that anchoring to even steel studs will not take all them much weight without blocking to spread the load over a larger area. The folded edge of the stud will flex under load and the drywall start to crack around the attachment points. Bookcases would likely be a better option, or some vertical supports to the floor from the shelves to transfer some of the load. Even relatively small cross sections of hardwood usually have a high load capacity vertically. You could use small 'posts' at the front and back of the shelves to get weight to a lower shelf, and finally to the floor preserving a lot of the 'open' appearance. Even a 1 inch x 2 inch 'post' from a decent hardwood has incredible vertical load strength (parallel to the 'grain'. You do not need 2x4s hardwood sections for something like this....See Moreplease help me design my home office! need bookshelves
Comments (39)That's great you have some help. I was thinking about your office today because I am working on mine and we have a few similarities as far as size and furniture - except I don't have all the great closet space you have! I think once you have the additional furniture in there you can play with where the desk should be. The good thing is you can shuffle it around as much as you need to until you find a look that feels right. If you don't already have some, you should pick up some of those sliders that you place under furniture to help move it around - they make it really easy for one person to move things around to try various configurations. I have several sets and they have been invaluable! In some rooms, we lived with those darn sliders under our furniture for weeks as we tried, lived with, and then changed up where certain pieces of furniture went....See MoreHelp me accessorize my bookshelves.
Comments (26)Love the size, style and shape of your chandelier! Great choice. Main thing in addition to moving your sofa to 18” from edge of coffee table is to add texture. Pillows and possibly grass cloth in backs of bookshelves. Your coffee table needs styling. A stack of 2-3 coffee table sized books. A large low bowl and a much larger white orchid arrangement plus a sculptural element. Think of the coffee table divided into 4 sections. Set elements accordingly. Bbl...See Morekandrewspa
3 months agoTake the pictures off of the top. They're too high for anyone to see well anyway. The glass doors help to obscure the contents, but the shelves look really full. Remove one quarter to one third of the contents to get a less cluttered look. Mix up the types and heights of items displayed.
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3 months agoTried to do a panoramic picture. Look at the photos in order, starting with the dining room, transitioning into the living room.
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3 months agoThis is a good article about styling for people who have lots of books. You appear to like color and displaying things, and books and photographs add soul to a space. I think you could organize your things a bit and have a really attractive display. You're also lucky to have the closed storage on the bottom for less tidy books.
Right now your whole right side is filled with the black and gold books, which makes it feel heavy over there. Those might look better if they were taking up the bottom shelves across all four sections, which would visually anchor your shelves. Think about balancing color across the whole space. In your original picture, I see hits of yellow on the left but no yellow in the right-side bookcase. And more balance -- your original picture has framed photos in the top left side but no books; those are the only sections with no books. I agree with the others who say to remove everything, add some books both vertically and stacked horizontally, and continually step back to look at color and balance.
For the family photos, you could create some breathing room by cutting the number of frames you display (definitely take the ones off the top and don't put anything on top of the bookcases). You could also help tie them together by matting them in a similar way and with coordinating frames. Since your photos are in color, connecting them with similar frames would help elevate the look. Here's an example of color photos that are framed in the same way (maybe consider changing up the stairway photos to something like this too).
Or color photos with the same color of frame.
Actually, I take back what I said about nothing on top of the bookcase. I think something like this could work because they're all basically the same item. Do you have a collection of large items that could go up there? (This is from Emily A. Clark; I like her content because it's a real home with multiple children. So not always perfect, but beautiful and curated.)
Good luck with your snow day! I'm in Austin and we're supposed to get really cold with maybe ice next week, so fingers crossed our streets don't shut down and that the electric grid stays up! Gotta keep those kids at school!
chloebud
3 months agoAgree with removing the items on top. Maybe this could help with arranging. Just depends on the look YOU like.
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