Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bookshelves

Putting casters on the narrow bottom of old bookshelves. Help?

barnone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:47:35 -0800

How do I put casters on the bottom of this bookshelf? The bottom looks like this. The bookshelf itself is of some kind of MDF or high density particleboard, i.e. not pure wood. I want to put casters on the bottom of the bookshelf, but the strip of wood that touches the floor is too narrow for a plate caster like this. Can I somehow put a screw into the end of the particle board to fit a caster like this? How? Details inside. It was made my partner's late father (before she was born) and was headed for the rubbish heap but I've saved it to give it another life. The wood is sturdy but slightly warped - so if I was to put a strip of wood making the 1/2" section flush with the 3/4" section, I'm not sure if I could get it flush enough. Also -- the simpler the better here. I don't have a saw, clamps, heavy duty glue, etc.

I'm a little worried about the wood splitting if I was to put in a threaded caster like the second linked option. How do you even screw those into the wood? The bookshelves have lived a long life and I'm a bit worried that a screw through the middle of old particleboard will just eventually split up the sides.

Are there really narrow plate casters? I'm worried that the dimensions of the piece will overwhelm little tiny casters (visually if not structurally). I had another idea to put huge plate casters on the bottom of the bookshelf (they'd be taller than the small supports, making the casters sit on the floor) but that would just look stupid.

I have a decent power drill. No saw. They're too big for me to lug somewhere else to use a power circular saw.

I'm going for a combination of good looks and ease of install. I'm willing to buy whatever casters will work for this project. Any suggestions at all? Help me make a fantastic gift here!

Satin latex paint on my bookshelves?

OmieWise — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:25:35 -0800

I have recently put up some wooden shelves (pine shelves on hardwood brackets) in my living room that I will use to hold records and books. I have a new can of white satin-finish latex paint. Can I use the paint on the shelves. (i.e. Will it look decent and not stick to the books and records?) What would be the reasons not to use this paint and instead get some other more appropriate paint? What might that more appropriate paint be? I'm most interested in making a cost-benefit analysis of using this paint that I have, so I don't have to get yet another can of friggin' paint. I want it to look decent, but it does not have to look perfect. If it's an absolutely disastrous idea to use this paint, please say so.

Clamping without long clamps

condour75 — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:30:30 -0800

How do I clamp a 3' long bookcase for gluing, without expensive long clamps? So I'm about to start my first carpentry project. I'm going to build a 3' wide x 4' tall bookcase with 12" x 1" pine, using dowel joinery. So I have my circular saw, my lumber, my drill and dowel jig, copious instructions from the internet and books. The one thing I don't really have, because I balked at the price, is the long cabinetry clamps that would be required for the glue-up, to clamp across the width of the whole case. They're 40 bucks each.

So... what's a poor man's gigantic clamp? Are there other ways to do this? I have weights and a couple cinder blocks, I could try rope, but I'm curious what the ask mefi woodworking team will say. Feel free to yell at me, too, if any of my plan sounds misguided.

(I realize this is a pretty big project to tackle as my first, but it's actually the test project for building much bigger bookshelves, and I've done some set-building in high school so I know basically how to use the tools)

Am I overloading my IVAR shelving?

washburn — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:20:25 -0800

How many books can an IVAR bookshelf unit from IKEA hold? So, I've just moved into a smaller apartment, and I've got more books than I can fit onto my shelves. I'm tempted therefore to really load up my new IVAR bookshelves, rather than get rid of books.

I'm hoping to hear experiences with really loading up IVAR shelving with books--have you done this and been fine? Have you tried this and produced a spectacular collapse?

Personally, I've got the 6ft (70.5") shelves (2x35" and 1x17" wide), hooked up together, on a carpeted concrete floor. I want to put in at least seven shelves (including the top and bottom piece), and want to load books two deep on the shelves (I'll just have to sort of remember which books are behind the ones in front).

What are the chances that this sort of loading will break the shelves?

Seattle-area bookcase company?

The corpse in the library — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:51:00 -0800

I want to have some bookshelves made for my living room. Any recommendations for a Seattle-area carpenter or company to do the work? Also, can you identify a furniture style for me (links inside) so I can describe the shelves I want? Here are some shelves I like:

shelf 1
shelf 2

Mine would be floor-to-ceiling and go around a corner, but I like the general look of these -- especially shelf 2. Simple, sturdy, like you'd find in a school library in the 1960s. Does this style have a name?

Where to buy one-foot-square black bookcase?

espertus — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:22:38 -0800

I'd like to find a cheap one-foot-square black tower bookcase, like the one I bought years ago, but haven't been able to find one online. The shelves need to be large enough for a piece of 8.5"x11" paper. The ideal height would be 3'-5'. The ideal color would be black and the price under $150.

Looking For the Perfect... Shelves

incomple — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:36:35 -0800

This is a long shot, but I'm looking to purchase shelving units that match, or at least come very close, to those pictured here It's solid wood construction (I'm not savvy enough to know one wood from another), 24" x 72" x 9", with six non-adjustable shelves each placed twelve inches apart. Nevermind the dust, or the dweeby selection of DVDs.

While having them match aesthetically would be great, I'm mostly looking for something that comes close dimensionally... Though it was surely designed as a bookshelf, I find it perfectly suited for housing my apartment's DVD collection (which has recently expanded beyond the capacity of a single unit). Any suggestions where I could purchase something similar at a reasonable cost? All of my searching is yielding units made of particle board and the like. Thanks for any help you can provide!

How do I build good bookshelves?

jayder — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 13:06:27 -0800

Can any of you folks point me to a good, simple plan for built-in bookshelves? Our book collection has way outgrown the capacity of the bookcases we have, and I'd like to build some bookshelves that are attached to the walls of our house. But the plans I have found in home-improvement books seem too complicated for my (nonexistent) carpentry skills. Here are the tools I've got: a hand-held circular saw, an electric drill, screwdrivers and a hammer. I want something nice-looking and presentable for the public areas of the house; i.e., not a cinderblock solution.

Shelving Solutions for Books

jimfl — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 22:21:27 -0800

Searching for modern, modular, attractive shelving for books. Once again, we have outstripped the capacity of our present shelves, and need to expand our bookshelves. Many of the books are reference/art technique books; format varies from trade paperback to "coffee-table" books.

The only room left is just off the living room, so bricks & boards isn't going to cut it. We have a couple of units from Ikea that are about 5 years old, but Ikea no longer carries, them, or anything remotely suitable.

We rent a home with plaster and lath walls, so attaching anything to the walls is right out. Ideally, the shelves would collapse into a pile of lumber and/or metal for transport (like most of our nomadic furnishings).

I am willing to build or buy, so suggestions of kit solutions would be welcome.

What do you all do for book shelving?

Library-style bookshelves?

joeclark — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 07:46:07 -0800

Source for library-style enamelled-metal bookshelves (or equivalent)? (Wow – long-time listener, first-time caller.)

For a spare room and a recess in a wall in another room, I'm thinking that library-style bookshelves would be perfect. They're simply shelves of enamelled steel, angled down somewhat at the back, that screw on to the wall. They don't quite look industrial but are not in any way pretty, and I'm OK with that.

The problem is locating the darned things. I've Googled for library-supply companies and the like, to little avail. Canadian sources are preferable.

Alternatively, what is another technology you would suggest for bookshelves in which each individual shelf is affixed to the wall, so as to provide height variation at will?

Securing Tall Bookshelves

amery — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 20:54:15 -0800

How do I keep my tall bookshelves from falling over during an earthquake? [More inside] I just moved to the San Francisco area, and I have a pair of nice bookshelves made of real wood. They’re fantastic, but they're also about seven feet tall. I'd like to do something to earthquake-proof them. What should I look for when I go to the hardware store? Angle brackets? A stud-finder? I'm living in an apartment, but I'm free to drill into the walls.

Any advice for building awesome bookshelves?

josh — Tue, 18 May 2004 15:40:43 -0800

Any advice for building awesome bookshelves? I'm moving into a new, small apartment, have a ton of books, and need to build some fairly easy, but also nice-looking, bookshelves for cheap. If they're adjustable, that's even better! . . .. And in general, any advice for furnishing and living in a small apartment, in Boston or anywhere else? It's a beautiful place, and we're trying to find well-designed, non-cheesy furniture that works in a small apartment and doesn't cost a millioin bucks.

Seeking inexpensive bookshelves designed for paperbacks

Tubes — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 15:01:14 -0800

I've been looking for some tall paperback-depth bookshelves that aren't real expensive. Normal bookshelf units are way too deep. These are nice but only 5 feet tall and kind of pricey. I'd like to utilize more vertical space against my wall. Seen anything that fits the bill?