Loft Bookshelves

One of the big selling points that attracted me to my current townhome was the loft, an area I set aside for writing. Over time the small room evolved into my favorite in the house, containing my collection of antiques, photos and knickknacks of my travels, and most importantly a significant portion of my library.

Outgrowing My Old Shelves

My library contains somewhere over 1,200 books, and despite the series of bookshelves in my bedroom, guest bedroom, loft, garage, and living room, I was running short on space and even shorter on places to put the knickknacks I pick up in my travels.

I searched department and furniture stores for replacements for the 48" high store-bought shelves along the back wall of my loft, but the difficult issue was the back wall of the loft, which met the bedroom's vaulted ceiling at only 67" or so--too short for the standard 72" tall bookcases commonly available.

I did manage to find some shelves of the right height at Target, but they ran about $100 apiece; multiply that by the five I'd need to fill the available space and that was more money than I wanted to spend.

I then got the bright idea of creating my own shelves. Why couldn't I just build something to fit the space exactly, and something with the shelves laid out to hold hardcovers, paperbacks, oversized books, and other oddball sizes--plus with space to display my knickknacks?

When I had finished, I had a set of bookshelves that perfectly fit the available space and were nicer than anything I could have found in a store.

The final shelves probably set me back something like $350 in materials and another $250 or so in tools, so although I actually spent more than I would have simply buying the ones I found to fit, I did get shelves exactly as I wanted.