Jen, this may sound a little presumptuous, but the bookcases you seem drawn to strike me as more the style of your old house than the new one. Of course, I have no idea what style you want in the new place, but I pictire a more clean-lined bookshelf.

That said, the price seems high to me.

I hope I have not overstepped here!

I agree the price is high. It won't fit well with the Craftsman style you were talking about.

So either of you have any woodworking skills? Building bookcases are fairly easy to make.

For a CL bookcase that price is very high (compared to what is available here in Central Florida).

A piece like that would be priced at about 500.00 in a consignment shop. Priced, not necessary sold for.

ML

I truly appreciate your honesty! I saw the bookcase and instantly harkened back to the one that I used to own, remembering that it had been pricey when new. But yeah - this is CL, not even a consignment shop - and $650 IS high.

I will be honest now, and say that I am starting to realize that I no longer really know WHAT style(s) I like! I think I will always have an eclectic home, but having gravitated for so many years to cutesy-cottagey things, I now have a difficult time gauging the appropriateness of OTHER styles. Oh, I do know when I see something that does absolutely NOTHING for me, but I'm also starting to feel that I really don't know how to pull a room together in such a way that it looks timeless and classic. I'm drawn to a more traditional look and I've gotten tired of kitsch, but good design has a life all its own, and that is what I worry that I'll be unable to give my rooms.

DH and I have zero woodworking skills (my father is a craftsman, although his time is limited), but we have discussed the possibility of having built-ins made. We have no idea how much that would cost ... surely more than a CL bookcase though. Perhaps the thing to do is to keep looking for hardwood bookcases with less "floof" and more functionality?

What kind of rooms do you like -- have you gathered some ideas?

I looked on your CL for bookcases and it seemed like there is a great disparity -- either cheap (and probably low quality or needs work) or expensive! It seems like the moderate inventory just isn't there right now.

I did find this, which I thought was pretty classic. It's not really a "focal" piece, if that's what you're ISO, but it's a very nice bookcase:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/5063383625.html

I also thought this was nice:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/5118547116.html

You're probably not looking for an aquarium, but I thought this was a really cool piece:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/5074703651.html

Thanks, melle_sacto, for the links! I love me a barrister's bookcase! I'd actually like to have an entire wall of those, but they tend to be pricey. Cool aquarium, but I have a fish phobia so I'll pass. ;-)

As to the kind of rooms I like? Well ... I guess I really need to give that more consideration. I like a number of different styles, lean towards a more eclectic look, but think I've lost my confidence in knowing how to create it. I need to work on my Ideabook some more.

If you can use your Dad's tools, I bet you could make something from Ana White's site.

Cube Drawer Bench

Hutch for the Cube Drawer Bench

The shelves are less than 12" deep and the drawer base is about 18" deep. The over all width is 28.5".
Though the plans call for 1 x 12" lumber, it could easily be made from carpenter grade plywood to cut costs. HoDe or L's will cut the lengths you need when you buy it.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/5070669045.html

Ikea Hemnes --- they are solid wood. I'd offer a little bit less than asking price.

I was just about to suggest IKEA bookcases! I've seen a lot of pics online where people have filled a wall with simple ikea units and they look almost built in.

I think your room from other posts calls for custom....and the idea of IKEA custom finished might be a good idea. IMO

justgotabme - what a cute plan! Thanks so much for that link. I'm going to need to boost DH's confidence when it comes to attempting things like this. He's a bit freaked out at the thought of using a simple jig to add cabinetry hardware -- just fearful that he's going to ruin something. But perhaps a simple project would do double-duty in providing us furniture that we need and increasing his self-confidence around power tools.

I don't know much about Ikea, but I too have wondered how a wall of very simple bookshelves would look. I did not know they made anything from solid wood, so that's rather impressive! We were "visiting" the house last night, and again I envisioned the reading room as I'd like it to eventually be. I can see now that the big, looming bookcases I linked to earlier in this thread would have been wrong. Simple, classic, clean-lined - that's the way to go.

The Billy bookcases that most people use in their customizing are not made from wood. Others, however, are, including the two Hemnes at your CL.

Now all I need is $2,000. No, wait - $4,000, so I could take them both. ;-)

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/5126043500.html

Those are very nice, but i doubt that the seller will get 2K for them.

I agree. I love them, but I think they were high when they priced them.

Jen, it took me quite some time to convince my hubby that we could actually make built in bookcases for the library. It finally dawned on me that the closet system I designed and we made together was a basic version of built in bookcases.

Our walk in closet. We used cleats to hold up the shelves in here since they are not adjustable.
This picture was for a blog article I wrote for HomeSpot. It was impossible to get a full shot of the both sides so I took two photos and put them together, which is why the floor and walls look more like a drawing. I had to do that to make it look look like a single view instead of two photos placed side by side.

And here is a photo I just snapped of one of the sides of the library bookcases. The ones with the class doors were purchased through CL before I convinced my hubby we could design and build them. Since we didn't want all the built ins to be as deep as the CL cabinets, I designed a double step back, dividing the depth so that they larger cases on the sides of the room would be bookcase depth.
This is one of the rooms in the house that my hubby has final say on, so the decor is his choice. After all, it's his room. However, I am working on finding more decorative file storage instead of the plastic container on the bottom shelf in the corner.

That is absolutely gorgeous, justgotabme! Wow! Can I hire you? :-D Surely you had other woodworking experience before crafting this closet and the bookcases, no? Very impressive that this is DIY. It looks like a very skilled PRO did it!

Ha, just saved 4K :)

Thank you Jen.
No, no real experience before we did the closet. We'd just started making the window trim at the time.
The closet was very basic skills that anyone could do. Most of the wood was cut at HoDe.
The height of the only non-adjustable shelves on the bookcases we made were determined by the height of the trim above the solid doors on the purchased cabinets. We were not able to find matching trim for that or the existing crown so we removed them and replaced them using what we picked for the rest of the bookcases. The only other thing we did the three center cabinets were to refinished them match our woodwork.
Not the best picture, but here's a panorama I took so you could see the how we made the sides work with the center cabinets. As you can see, I really need to find some proper containers for all his stuff so it looks neater. Drives me crazy. I've more books to organize too.