Bookshelves and The Ikea Song by Jonathan Coulton

We have a lot of books.  There are these two bookshelves in the library (there used to be more, but we moved the piano into the library and the bookshelves into the playroom, and we added a CD cabinet):

and these three bookshelves in the playroom:

and these stacks of books on the floor in the playroom.  They're from the last trip to the used bookstore in Mebane - their most recent 4-paperbacks-for-$1 sale:*

 Most of the paperback shelves are double shelved, and the science fiction/fantasy section is triple shelved:

We're thinking of making the wall that the three bookshelves are on into a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcase - something like what Centsational Girl does in From Billys to Built-Ins, except going all the way to the ceiling.  We looked very seriously at what she built.  She uses Ikea Billy bookcases and then builds around them to make them built-in.  It turned out very well, and she says it only took a weekend and less that $400.  We would want the larger shelves on the bottom for large books - and we could maybe even get our record collection out from the floor of our closet!

However... I've been looking at the room at various times over the last week.  The playroom has two windows on the front of the house.  Compared to most of the other rooms, particularly the living room, it seems like a bit of a black hole.  It's darker than the rest of the downstairs, and it almost seems to absorb light.  

So, I mentioned to dear husband that it would be nice to have a window in that room, and build bookshelves around it.  I've always like the look of built-in bookshelves around a window.  

That would be a lot more expensive, though.  Adding a window actually doesn't cost as much as I expected, but it does add a lot to the price.  The shelves would have to be totally built so we couldn't save by using already made Ikea shelves.

We also talked about putting a garden window in, but that idea quickly disappeared once I found out how expensive they are.  

We're still discussing.

We've passed Ikea stores before - up North and while driving through Charlotte, but we've never been in one (the Charlotte one is two hours away, and we've never had a reason to go there).  However, I do enjoy this Ikea song (to buy, go to his website and page down to the song) by Jonathan Coulton:

 [Note:  If you're the sort of person who clicks on the photos in order to see what books are on the shelves (I am), please leave a comment.**]

* Plus older son has 2 bookshelves and many stacks worth of books in his room, but that's not MY worry!

** If you did look, the book is The Joy of X - it's a MATH book.

Comments

[rebecca]

Hi
I have stumbled on your very old post from 2010 and just wanted to mention a mistake that should be ammended 9if possible) you attribute a song to Kate Bush wneh it fact it is Kate Wolf :)
Thanks
http://mlight.typepad.com/moomin_light/2010/04/wondering-while-wandering.html

[M Light]

Thank you!