Atheneum. Otherwise known as a place of institutional learning, a library. This is the new word of the week.
The library is a special place for us. We are a family of book collectors and readers. Thus, the need for a library (aside from the fact I have ALWAYS wanted one!!!). I think that the library might have been the part of our basement designing project that I was most excited about. Who am I kidding, of course it was! I teach English! :D
Anyhow, back to my thoughts on "make it yourself." We did not make it ourselves for the bookcases. Instead we designed them ourselves based off the space we allotted and off we went to Ikea to design the library.
The Specs:
Floor to ceiling bookcases (no wasted space please)
Narrow
White
Fills the space
Room to expand
Sounds simple, right? RIGHT! (bet you thought I was going to say wrong...gotcha!) Ikea has been making the Billy bookcase system for libraries for over 30 years. I think they might have it right, don't you think?? Anyhow, it fits just right in the space we have, and they designed them to curve in corners (have I mentioned how much I love Ikea?). Our first plan was to make the library ourselves using Ikea's Billy Bookcases as our design model, but upon further measurements and inspections, we realized the Billy system fit perfectly into the corner, and we could take it with us whenever (sheeze, not for a while after all of this awesome construction!) we move.
Here is the "hard part": Since the bookcases are floor to ceiling, that poses a problem for securing the bookcases to the wall. In fact, such a problem that Matt and I spent the better part of the day trying to secure them by using Ikea's directions....Okay, I know, y'all are out there yelling at me: "Sarah, you have bought pieces from Ikea before, you KNOW their directions are junk!" Yes, I know, the Swedes' directions might as well have been written in Sanskrit for all I could understand.
Does anyone remember Ziggy? The American Greetings character? He was on all kinds of different things when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s (stickers, paper, greeting cards)...If you don't remember him, Google him quick, so that my next story is all the more entertaining! :)
Now that everyone knows what Ziggy looks like, let us continue. Picture a booklet of directions, with little Ziggies all over the page with big block arrows (think 5th grade love letters, check "Yes or "No" arrows--very child-like) pointing to various nondescript portions of the picture. Now you know the kind of directions I am talking about here. One word: Sanskrit.
Okay, so the problem was not assembling the bookcases, as I stated before it was securing it to the wall. Ikea gives you think nice little corner bracket pack that is supposed to "solve" your securing the corner bookcase problem, only in our opinion it added at least 4 hours to the assembly time.
We finally chucked the brackets, cabinetry bolted the two corner pieces to the adjoining bookcases, "L" bracketed the rest to the wall and finished within the hour. So, if you are deciding to do the Ikea library, which I 1,000xs recommend by the way, just skip the corner brackets and DIY. :)
I have our library organized (yes, can we say obsessively organized?) by fiction (alphabetical by author's last name), then non-fiction categories (alphabetical category, then alphabetical title, just like in a real library!), and wrapping up with a few over-sized books and scrapbooks.
I will post more about the decorations I made for the library at another time, so stay tuned- they are really cool.
Here is the final product. i. love. it.
Sometimes I just walk over and bask in the library's glory. No need to point out that I am a dork. I am cool with that. This is exactly what I wanted and it makes me so happy. :) Squeee.
Be Blessed.
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