Bookshelves

A quick recap, since this project has been years in the making. Ever since we moved into the house, Aubrey's beloved book collection has been in boxes. So, we needed bookshelves to house *some* of Aubrey's books. After much contemplation, we decided to have 2 freestanding bookshelves built for our living room flanking each side of the entrance to our dining room. We contemplated Ikea bookshelves however, the dimensions didn't work. So, we hired out, and in order to save money, painted them ourselves. (Such a tedious task, but it saved us well over $1,000)

And here they are...



Here are some details that went into them



(1) How high? We measured many times to decide how high they should be. We couldn't have them built straight to the ceiling as since they aren't "built ins" we needed some relief to actually get them in. However, I do quite like the air between the top, and the ceiling. Moulding was designed to reflect the style of the moulding in our house.

(2) Knobs - The knobs are brushed brass, that match the base of our Pottery Barn Lights as blogged about here

(3) Hidden away ... The base units provide awesome storage for things like our DVD collection that previously had no home.

(4) A place for extras... Instead of your typical straight bookcases, I designed them to have a little hutch for extra detail, and a place for photographs, and little pieces.

A bit more about them....

The Design
I designed the bookshelves based on bookshelves that my parents have in their house but with some modifications to account for the fact that our living room is MUCH smaller, and we didn't want to take up too much floor space. We worked with the builder to make sure that everything was quite specific, from the header, to how deep the hutch part would come out.

The Styling
These bookcases are going to be just that - A place for all of Aubrey's books. With the compromise that I get some room for some picture frames of photos of family. The photo shows you as we fill the shelves up with a small percentage of his collection.