Designing and building bookshelves

Many times you just build a base out of 2×4s and add trim if your going to use the pre made panels. It’s seem just buying Ikea shelves would work just as well and may be even cost less.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

My wife and I were both academics and had more boxes of books than household items on our last move (and I hope it is our LAST move :-). The movers hated us by time they were done loading and unloading all that heavy paper. We found that a lot of the stock bookshelves you buy cannot properly store a whole variety of different book sizes, they are meant more for an ‘average’ book. I’m a geographer and have numerous atlases none of which fit nicely on the ‘average’ book shelf. I would look carefully at what books you have and then design your shelves around those.

-- ...it's rennovation time!!!

Normally I would agree with Mark but I have perhaps 400 books of all sizes on a shelf given to me by my in-laws made my Ikea about 7’ tall and each of the two units 4’ wide. Much to my surprise it has held up well for more than 10 years,

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

We went to IKEA and looked at the various units they have. We actually like the closet wardrobe frames shelves best; they are almost 8’ tall, so there’s none of that splicing two units together.

However, some of the other ones designed as wall units also have nice drawers available. They would be handy along the bottom edge for tossing loose crap like extension cords. The closet organizer drawers are not that type. And of course, the two product families are not compatible size-wise.

I’d sort of prefer the plywood ones that I posted initially. I think they’d be stronger than particle board.The IKEA ones would be a lot faster, though. And if I did what I did with some other IKEA stuff and gorilla glue the thing together instead of relying solely on their twist-lock things, it would be really solid. I can always add some trim or get some iron-on veneer from Rockler to camoflage the joints, too.

Still looking for input. I have another month and a half until closing, and a few weeks of more pressing projects before shelving

My only advice based on experience is make the shelves as deep as you want but don’t go over 3 feet wide, even with plywood. I have 4 foot wide solid pine shelves that bend noticeably with a full load of hardcovers. Paperbacks are lighter and it doesn’t seem to affect the shelves. Whatever you do anchor it to the studs.