"Look at lots of pictures to decide on the style you want."

"You will see the different types of shelving, both built-in and free-standing here." The particle board with melamine coating shelves are inexpensive, come in various widths and lengths, and verticals come pre-drilled for shelves. Sometimes it's easier and faster to buy ready made and build it in than to start from scratch. Crown molding can be added to plain bookshelves for improved esthetics. Definitely do adjustable shelves. Whether you do cubbies is a personal preference but with a long horizontal expanse of shelving you will need supports so vertical dividers are a usual way of providing that.

If you do shelves to the ceiling they will be difficult to access. I think a maximum height of 6' looks better anyhow. In fact you might do only 5' for easy access and have space for wall art above. Depth of 9" is more than enough for paperbacks but if you plan to use the shelves for other things such as baskets it should be deeper. Decide what will go on the shelves before planning. The lower part could be closed storage which is always useful or you could have wider open shelves with baskets for the lower ones and narrower above for books and decorative items. Also have a look at kitchen cabinets for lower units that can be built-in.

Ikea is known for decent quality and reasonable pricing on kitchen cabinets and shelving so you might include them in your comparison shopping.

If you want it to fit exactly, you'll need to build it out of plywood to the exact dimensions. For that, you'll need a table saw (or possibly a circular saw with a straight edge jig), a drill with a template for the shelf pegs spacing and a jig to be sure they are all 90 degree straight, a biscuit joiner and biscuits for simple strong joints that don't involve pegs filling countersunk holes (although that would work too). Plus all the materials to sand and finish the wood to the finish of your choice. (Paint would be easiest, but not the first choice for the shelving material.)

You can also take a ready made bookshelf and use moldings as fillers to build it in. It won't be quite as custom, and it can look wonkier, depending on the size of the bookcase and the space it needs to go in. Or it can look pretty great if you're able to closely match the ready made to the actual size you need and have good skills at installing moldings.

It's about a 3-3.5 on a 5 star scale for difficulty. It gains a star simply because of the number of tools that you need to do this and because it involves molding. Otherwise, it would be a plain 2.5.

I'd check both the local woodworking shop and discount furniture stores. We have some paces here that make all wood furniture and have some common items like bookcases ready to buy. We also have a large warehouse furniture place that sells all sorts of furniture, including finished and unfinished bookcases.

I think regular bookcases are 10-12 inches deep. But DVD storage units are a good depth for paperbacks. You could consider regular bookcases for the first few feet as a base then attach some DVD units on top for paperbacks.

You might be able to find suitable floating shelves that you could use and just cover the wall with them.

I think a 6' wide shelf would sag without a center support. Books are heavy, when we have moved I notice the movers have boxes with different things suggested on the sides. Big boxes say stuff like "pillows, blankets" on the side. Medium boxes say, "kitchen appliances, dish ware". Small boxes say "books".

Are you near Ikea? The Hemnes bookcases are $150 each, come in 3 colors, are made of wood (not particle board), and are 3' wide by 6'3" tall. Two of them butted together and secured to the wall might be just perfect for the space.

If you wanted something to keep dust off the books, there is a version with glass doors for more money, but its very pretty.

If you want to match the wood stain or paint color in the room then I suggest looking at an unfinished furniture store to see what is available.

The particle board with melamine coating shelves are inexpensive, come in various widths and lengths, and verticals come pre-drilled for shelves.

Luckygal, do you know of a place to buy those verticals with the pre-drilled holes? I look around Home Depot and Lowes and don't see them being sold separately, only in kits. Am I missing something?

I was also going to suggest IKEA, or else Container Store. Container Store has the Elfa systems on sale 30% off, and they will even install if you need that.

BTW - if you wind up making your own I saw on TV where they used pegboard as their template for drilling the holes for the peg inserts on some custom bookcases. I thought that was a clever and quick solution to making sure they all line up well, since pegboard is inexpensive and easily available. Much faster to use it as a jig than make a jig from scratch.

Luckygal, do you know of a place to buy those verticals with the pre-drilled holes? I look around Home Depot and Lowes and don't see them being sold separately, only in kits. Am I missing something?

Look in the molding aisle at HD--I think that's where I found the components to make a custom-sized unit.

ETA: You can also uses the tracks w/clips on MDF or other boards instead of the peg system

This post was edited by chijim on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 11:42

Home Depot has them.

I like the Ikea Hackers site.
They have some suggestions on how to build-in their
shelving .
IkeaHackers

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.homedepot.com/buy/1-x-16-x-8-white-melamine-shelf-drilled-371693.html#.UOMUf4Z0iDo

Below is a picture of mine to give you an idea, no matter what material you use.

Mine are 5'5" wide with a divider in the middle for support. The bottom bookshelf is 15" tall and depth of all shelves is about 13".

If you plan on the shelves being there for a long time, then I'd make the height between shelves much deeper so hardbacks can go in there. We had the bottom shelves (both walls) with the 15" height made especially for taller books, and it has really come in handy.

Thanks chijim and forboystoo for answering graywings question. I would have had to do a search as have never actually used them for bookshelves, only bought and used them with a closet system. I knew they were available separately tho.

The Ikea Hackers site is a great one. That would likely be the fastest and easiest way for a novice builder to do built-ins.

Oakleyok, I love your little library. I'd just move that plant, table, and guitar out, move in a comfy chair with ottoman and hibernate there all winter long while reading! :D

Ikeahackers has some great ideas, but if you're going to build in ikea you can also find very explicit instructions by googling the bookcase name + built-ins, like billy built-ins or besta built-ins, for example.

EDIT for example, billy built in will produce this:

Here is a link that might be useful: centsational gir's built-ins

This post was edited by writersblock on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 17:42

Another article on built-ins from stock bookcases (they used billy, also, but the same technique would work with any brand).

Here is a link that might be useful: Jenny's built-in bookshelves

Oakley, I LOVE your little library area. In all the pictures you have posted over the years, I don't think I have ever seen that area. I agree with Lucky - that would be awesome with a reading chair, perhaps with a footstool or small ottoman.

You've been holding out on us girl:).

Thanks to all. We went and checked out ready made pine bookcases at a local wood furniture place and we ordered a couple of shelves that will fit with 1in gap. DH was very skeptical of using readymade molding to fit a trim to make it seem built in but once he saw the samples at homedepot, he got it:). The pine wood shelves come unfinished and I probably have to decide if I want the shelves and the molding painted or stained. The room is going to be painted a pale yellow (F&B Tallow). I just realized, I did not post a picture of the nook. I will post tomorrow with a photo.

5' is kind of far for a book shelf without support. 3' should be fine. Or for paperbacks which weigh less, you could get away with 5' if you reinforce the shelves with a cleat at the back and a piece of wood below the shelf at the front.

9" depth should be more than enough for most paperbacks and normal books. Binders (about 11") and some oversized books would be bigger.

Cloud Swift - We came to the same conclusion as you regarding support. The unfinished pine we selected will basically be 9in depth and we have 2 bookcases (36in and 30in). So that spans 66in and we had just 67 inches. I am hoping the finish trim will take care of the rest.

BTW, we did check out IKEA Billy and really liked the height extender and it seemed to be a good option as it had all sorts of other accessories like doors, bookends, lights etc. The depth was 11in and we felt 9in will give us a more builtin look as our recess was exactly that. We also wanted to maximize the seating there. I would have done Billy other wise. For price/ value, can't beat IKEA. As it is less than 10mi for me, it is sort of hard to avoid the temptation :)