Bookcases!
Sep. 7th, 2009 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brooksmosesWe have new bookcases!
So, quite some months ago, I had an idea of putting bookcases in our hallway. Narrow bookcases, sized for paperbacks, since hallways are not so very wide -- and besides which, it's useful to have paperback-sized bookcases for one's paperbacks, since they don't pack very efficiently on bookcases sized for hardbacks.
The original plan was just to get some cheap lumber and build something that was quick and simple. But it turned out that really cheap pine has knots which leak rosin, and less-cheap pine is still not all that cheap in quantities suitable for a hallway-full of bookcases, and poplar is rather nicer to work with than pine and only slightly more expensive. And, if I was spending that much on them, I wanted to do a good job, with beveling the edges and so forth. Also, I might as well paint them, since we'd been wanting something that we could paint bright and colorful colors. Thus, the project took a bit longer than I'd anticipated -- but it's now, as of about an hour ago, completely finished. And I'm quite pleased with them, too; they're a very pleasant bright glossy purple, and they hold books, and they're something I'll still be pleased with years from now.
From the kitchen end of the hallway. This gives a sense of the general span of the bookcases (three at 36 inches, and one at about 30 at the end) and the color. The backs are a medium cream color, for contrast -- you can just see a difference between them and the wall if you look closely.
From the bedroom end, giving the other perspective:
You might be wondering what that odd short upright is between a couple of shelves on the near bookcase in that picture. There's a light switch that was inconveniently placed, behind where I wanted the bookshelves to go. Rather than leave off the end bookshelf, I cut a hole for it in the back of the bookcase and framed it, with the upright to keep books from falling in front of it:
So. Yay bookcases, and yay for that project finally being finished.
So, quite some months ago, I had an idea of putting bookcases in our hallway. Narrow bookcases, sized for paperbacks, since hallways are not so very wide -- and besides which, it's useful to have paperback-sized bookcases for one's paperbacks, since they don't pack very efficiently on bookcases sized for hardbacks.
The original plan was just to get some cheap lumber and build something that was quick and simple. But it turned out that really cheap pine has knots which leak rosin, and less-cheap pine is still not all that cheap in quantities suitable for a hallway-full of bookcases, and poplar is rather nicer to work with than pine and only slightly more expensive. And, if I was spending that much on them, I wanted to do a good job, with beveling the edges and so forth. Also, I might as well paint them, since we'd been wanting something that we could paint bright and colorful colors. Thus, the project took a bit longer than I'd anticipated -- but it's now, as of about an hour ago, completely finished. And I'm quite pleased with them, too; they're a very pleasant bright glossy purple, and they hold books, and they're something I'll still be pleased with years from now.
From the kitchen end of the hallway. This gives a sense of the general span of the bookcases (three at 36 inches, and one at about 30 at the end) and the color. The backs are a medium cream color, for contrast -- you can just see a difference between them and the wall if you look closely.
From the bedroom end, giving the other perspective:
You might be wondering what that odd short upright is between a couple of shelves on the near bookcase in that picture. There's a light switch that was inconveniently placed, behind where I wanted the bookshelves to go. Rather than leave off the end bookshelf, I cut a hole for it in the back of the bookcase and framed it, with the upright to keep books from falling in front of it:
So. Yay bookcases, and yay for that project finally being finished.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 09:16 am (UTC)say, you wouldn't happen to like purple by any chance? ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 01:11 pm (UTC)Give it a couple of days to pick up the books that had been double-shelved and stuffed into boxes, and this lot will be filled with a few books left over. Every bookcase I've ever had was working like that.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 02:18 pm (UTC)I like how the light switch aperture came out.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 03:51 pm (UTC)We (mostly me I think) were so color-starved it was funny when we started looking at paint colors. We started wanting a nice dark eggplant, but are quite happy with our fushia.
suzanne
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 04:13 pm (UTC)The light switch thing did come out well. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 12:13 am (UTC)I'll admit the empty space confused me, because I don't normally see that with bookshelves. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 02:52 pm (UTC)Give them time.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 05:14 am (UTC)