Office

Arched Bookcases

My home office is separate from, but still open to, our new living room. It’s sort of around the corner. In past homes, we’ve liked having one or two bookshelves in our living room for some of the prettier/nicer books. In this apartment, I think we’re going to try and make my office like a…

My home office is separate from, but still open to, our new living room. It’s sort of around the corner.

In past homes, we’ve liked having one or two bookshelves in our living room for some of the prettier/nicer books. In this apartment, I think we’re going to try and make my office like a library and put all the books on a couple of big shelves (maybe with a ladder??). I’m meeting with a contractor sometime this week who will be building some walls in our very open apartment. And I’m hoping he can make the walls in my office floor-to-ceiling bookshelves – that will probably be way out of the budget though.

If we can’t get the floor-to-ceiling numbers, I might just get a couple boxes of Billy’s with the extender shelves. Wouldn’t it be cool to add this arched detail for a more custom look? I think it would be an easy DIY with some 1/4″ MDF and a $35 circular saw.

An even easier take away idea is the great paint job – white exterior with black shelves and shelf backs. Looks dramatic, but still clean.
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18 thoughts on “Arched Bookcases

  1. I Love your MDF idea! We have two arched built in bookcases in the LR, done with decorative profiles (molding?) and they were surprisingly inexpensive.

  2. Alright, we must have been cut from the same cord…I have a weakness for scallops….and for books and black. One can never go wrong.
    Do it and then show us… FYI -I also love back to back book shelves as dividers to make a wall in open lofty spaces.
    pve

  3. I like the white with black interior idea. How about wall or contact paper on the inside to separate the "room" even more?

    welcome back! Enjoy NYC.

  4. I lined my painting studio with Red Billy book cases and I love how it instantly transformed the space into a library. Arches would be divine, i can't wait to see what you come up with!

  5. Congrats on the new place! I just repainted my whole house and did something like this in the office too, but with dark green instead of black, it looks fantastic! Would love some arches at the top too, but alas, the ceiling is slanted with the roof line. P.S. Welcome back!
    -Valerie

  6. We just remodeled our home office and added a wall of built-in bookshelves with a little window seat. So charming. However, we are thinking of adding more built-ins to our living room (once we remodel) because we have so many books (14 years of college and post-grad education between my husband and I makes a lot of book inevitable)!

  7. I have a weakness for anything book shelf related, so I love this idea! The black is a great background too. Thanks for sharing and if you decided to try it, we want pictures!

  8. Jenny, I faced the same challenge with built-ins and ended up using the Billy's with the extenders. Here's a few tips if you go that route:

    1) I cut notches out of the bottom of the Billy's so they would fit flush against the wall even with the bottom molding

    2) I also used inexpensive crown molding around the top and then along the seams between each and it looked perfectly custom–except for those pesky adjustable shelf holes. I tired wood filler in white, but it wasn't great

    3) I used one of the skinny Billy's against an adjoining wall to create a 'wrap' effect to look more built in. It worked, but in the future, I would plan on some kind of extra side panel or molding for the facing side to make it look less modular.

    Can't wait to see your results!

    Abby

  9. Jenny – Did you ever try this? I bookmarked this post for a future "project" and am thinking of tackling it. I'd love one of your step by step "how to" guides.
    Happy 2011!

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