…for books? hmmm…
Speculation on the increase in home libraries as “memory rooms” and “TV free zones” in an article and podcast in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Libraries have become SO fashionable that this month, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey featured the one in her Santa Barbara, Calif., home on the cover of her magazine; it contains first editions collected for her by a rare-book dealer. Wonder if she’s cracked open a few?
In the latest annual National Association of Home Builders consumer survey, 63% of home buyers said they wanted a library or considered one essential, a percentage that has been edging up for the past few years. Many mass-market home builders are including libraries in their house plans, sometimes with retro touches like rolling ladders and circular stairs.
Fashionable or not
I think a lot of people would like a Library just to put all their books, dvd’s cd’s into one place for simple storage!
But who can afford to do that? I’ll never be able to get a house anyway but if I was going to build one for example, I’d have a Library, a Cinema room, a hobbies room for my collections. etc etc.
Rich people, or pretencious people as well as bibliophiles will always have libraries, as they can AFFORD to have them. Most people just have to put up with bookcases scattered all over the place.
home libraries, DIY-stylin’!
Yes, I regularly confer with other bibliophiles on the lighter shade of broke on their book spaces – how they store, how they afford to store, etc. My husband and I have a second bedroom we use as an office and we fantasize about building shelves into the walls, lining 3 of the walls this way. The lumber is cheap–it’s just finding someone who can do the work well, who we can also afford.
I would totally buy an IKEA shelving system but much of our collection is hardcover comic books and they seem especially heavy. IKEA shelves are rarely thicker than 1/2 inch and I’m certain they’d bow and bend after a year or so.
Anyone else got plans, specs, dreams or blueprints for doing this on a budget?
Pick the right IKEA shelves
Pick the right IKEA shelves and they will last decades. I’ve been buying IVAR components for at least 20 years, adding on as needed, and I’ve never had a problem with shelves bowing. The shelves are pine, not particle board. They are paintable/stainable if you don’t like plain pine. You could try the narrower width (approx 18″ shelves instead of approx 36″) for extra strength for your really heavy stuff.