Any ideas on "infinitely" adjustable bookshelves.

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Any ideas on "infinitely" adjustable bookshelves.

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1guido47
okt 29, 2008, 7:12 pm

Dear Group,

Sorry about the use of infinite, but what I am looking for is some sort of adjustible book shelf that will accomodate the very smallest to the very largest books, next to each other. At the moment I have shelves that are good in one dimension, ie. height.
I do have some ideas on shelving disparate sized books but thought I should not "re-invent the wheel"

Yours, Guido.

2skittles
okt 29, 2008, 10:21 pm

I've gotten extremely fond of bookcubes, instead of shelves... of course, I still have shelves, but I'm really liking cubes.. fewer bookends & shelving possibilities.

3skoobdo
Bewerkt: okt 31, 2008, 2:51 am

Maybe, this model Ikea's BONDE, BILLY bookcases with adjustable shelving will solve your storage problems. Try a Ikea's store near you.
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/

Search: BONDE, BILLY

I think you can buy online , the retail at Richmond(Melbourne,Australia).

The product is DIY and easy to assemble by yourself.

4johnnyapollo
okt 31, 2008, 6:39 am

I like having base cabinets that are deeper and allow larger books, with narrower shelves above that have glass doors. The glass keeps off most of the dust (protects the books)

5WholeHouseLibrary
okt 31, 2008, 8:14 am

Things to consider --

A couple of years ago, we had several custom bookcases built for us. They're full now (see my profile page for the story). Some are 7 feet tall, some have an additional 6 inches; one is 5.5 inched deeper than the rest (it's a really nice effect).

The one consideration we didn't make was: Will the really tall one for one of the back bedroom fit through the door? In any other circumstance, it's not an issue, but the door is located in a tight spot, and it (the bookcase) didn't. The bookcase got damaged in my son's attempt to disprove physics, so our bookcase maker actually took it back and built another one at 7 feet tall. We really love them, and they cost approximately the same as the IKEA offerings. The movable shelves are adjustable at half-inch increments. Here's the crux though -- one shelf must be permanent (for stability), and the location of that one shelf is critical.

Generally speaking, most books are around 9.5 inches tall. Atlases, art books, and the majority of coffee-table books will go as tall as 13 to 15 inches. The original bookcases all had their permanent shelf set at 36 to 37 inches (from the top of the bottom shelf, which is also permanent). The replacement bookcase (for some reason) had the permanent shelf set at 31 inches - great if you collect miniature books or want to display bumpy-glass dishes or other curios, but an absolute disaster if you need shelf-space for books. Do the math -- (a half-inch for each shelf, plus the height of the tallest book for that shelf, plus another half-inch for "clearance") times two. I discovered this anomaly last week when I tried to fit the 400-499 range (Dewey, Language) on to the 3 bottom shelves, and could only accommodate 1 adjustable shelf for books there.

So, I've got all of out books arranged according to the DDS now, with the exceptions being that all tall books go on the lowest shelf, and MrsHouseLibrary wants to keep a certain books on the shelves in our living room for the 'wow' factor.

6readafew
okt 31, 2008, 9:40 am

5 > actually you don't NEED to have a fixed shelf here's a book self I made last spring it doesn't even have a 'normal' back. It is very solid, 7'10" tall, 4" wide and 11" deep. All the selves (except the bottom of course) are adjustable. However this isn't a $200 book self.

7cornerhouse
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2008, 6:51 pm

The modular bookshelves from ISS Designs (http://issdesigns.com/) are the only truly modular cases/shelves that I've seen. They are infinitely adjustable, come in a number of depths, and styles, and come in pieces so that there's no problem getting into a room.

Of course, I found them online just after we bought 6 new bookcases -- several of which were just a little too tall and wide to fit down the hallway and into the room for which they were intended. Good thing we had another long wall that was bereft of books.

8AliceKathleen
jan 24, 2010, 2:32 am

I just printed up the brochure for issdesigns. It looks good, strong and adjustable. Thank you for the link.

9Autodafe
jan 24, 2010, 8:37 pm

www.smartfurniture.com makes nice products. Expensive though.

10AliceKathleen
jan 24, 2010, 11:46 pm

There is an ad in Financial Times for a shelving company VITSOE www.vitsoe.com/I may have goofed on the link -- I know nothing about doing it.
At least look up VITSOE. It is "infinitely" adjustable.

11guido47
jan 25, 2010, 3:26 am

Hi, group,

I was amazed, I thought this thread was dead. Thanks for all the new ideas and yes Alice your link is...(sick?) but I still found the info.

I guess I will "shelve" my idea for now. :-)

I have settled for IKEAS Billy series. I bought 4 20+ years ago and, unlike some cheap stuff, it has stood up well. Even my heavy books have not bowed the shelves.
Only one small peeve. They have reduced the width from 90 cm. to 80.
That's 4 inches for our US friends. ;-)

Yours, Guido.

12guido47
jan 25, 2010, 3:33 pm

Dear Alice,

Just a supplementary thought, a hint I was given soon after I joined LT.

When posting a LINK make sure you have entered a "space" both before AND after the link. Thus do NOT use an enter or tab etc. (white space) even if it is the last thing. Make sure you put a blank space (space bar) after your link.

Just passing on the wisdome of gracious LTers from the past. :-)

Guido.

13AliceKathleen
feb 2, 2010, 11:11 pm

Thank you.

Alice

15sunny
feb 10, 2013, 4:32 pm

16thejazzmonger
Bewerkt: feb 19, 2013, 3:18 pm

No specs or design details, but if you a nearly-endless supply of ideas, try:

http://www.bookshelfporn.com

17Keeline
feb 19, 2013, 3:27 pm

When I think of "infinitely" adjustable bookshelves, the first image that pops into my mind are microscope knobs with coarse and vernier geared adjustments. However, I suspect that one is expecting to be able to set a shelf at 1 or 2 inch increments to find something close to the space required for the books on that shelf and minimize wasted space.

Since many of our books are duodecimo (12mo) size, the typical bookcases we have purchased over the years often have too few shelves so we had to buy extras compared with the standard complement of shelves to be sold with a case. It was important to do this at the time of purchase because the oak furniture dealers where we got similar but not identical cases would change the dimensions and style at a whim between our purchases. Fortunately, they look similar enough in the room to seem like they belong together. Once the books are on them, they are the focus as opposed to the bookcases themselves.

James

18Carnophile
apr 26, 2013, 10:04 am

>16 thejazzmonger: That's an awesome site.