help me find a shallower bookcase

I'm trying to find a low bookcase for my bedroom, and I am having trouble because evidently no one thinks the depth of the bookcase is important (and therefore not very searchable/filterable). You can often filter by number of shelves, or width, or height, but never depth.

The only location I can put this is across from the foot of the bed, and I would really prefer it to be less than 12" deep, so I can still walk by easily. In addition, there is a humongous wall wart that cannot be moved in the space, so the shelf needs to have an open back in order to work around it. If it's cheap enough, I'd consider carving out a hole to fit over it, but not if I've spent money on it.

I was also hoping for a double standard width (48-60").

Does anyone remember coming across an open-backed, shallow bookcase? I'm desperate! Everything I'm finding is 15" deep, which does not work at ALL. Why is this so difficult? Most books are not that wide - why are all the bookcases so deep?

Ikea's Billy bookcases are designed for books not knickknacks. They are 11 inches deep and you can get them 13 1/2 or 15 inches wide. I have a few of them and I am very happy with them.

Have you considered a custom-made bookcase? They're really not that expensive.

> 2: TLCrawford

I looked at Billy, but they're all tall (I was looking for half-height) and not open-backed. Not to mention the nearest IKEA is 2.5 hours away.

> 3: WholeHouseLibrary

I'm trying to convince my husband that the local unfinished wood furniture place would be able to do something like that for us, but for some reason he doesn't like the idea.

I just want to finish unpacking my books! (we just moved here in Oct).

I have a three-shelf Billy in my bedroom; I'll try to run down the web-page with the description.

This one is 11" deep and 41 3/4" tall.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/93690707

Are you putting regular hardcover or trade paperbacks in the case?

If you only want to put mass market paperbacks in the bookcase, then I would suggest Sauders largest cd/dvd shelves.

http://www.sauder.com/furniture/product.asp?p=327

this is just one "shade/color".. there are others.

BUT this is not deep at all. It was made for cds & dvds, so would only work with smaller paperbacks.

Good Luck!!

I was also hoping for a double standard width (48-60").

I deplore double standards!

Seriously: There are a lot of assemble-it-yourself bookcases that have backs. With most, I've noticed, you can simply omit the back (which is often just cardboard). My wife and I did this with a book case in our office, to no ill effect.

I should have mentioned that the Billys do have a back, but it is a thin sheet (1/8") that is quite easy to cut a hole in. I just did this for a friend who was going to put the bookcase in front of a power outlet.

Most bookcases are routinely 8-12 inches deep. However, you might look at cases for DVDs (which are very close to paperback sizes) for something shallower. For one tight spot in our library I found a folding metal DVD case at the Container Store that works well for the juvenile series books I store in it. I find though that I have to watch the height of certain books because they come close to the shelf supports.

http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10006894

However, I agree that a custom-built case may be what is ultimately needed if you have an unusual space and requirements.

James Keeline

This is a dvd shelf rack from Sauder

http://www.sauder.com/images/product/Normal/Multimedia_Storage_Tower_1029-110_1....

They used to have one that was approx 48 by 48 but I don't see it on the sauder site anymore. This one is approx 32 by 48 (inches).