Look, ma, I built some shelves!

As September 1st nears, and Anna packs her belongings to move downstairs, I am faced with all of the projects around the house I hoped to do when we moved in a year ago but never found the time or energy to do. One of the continual problems of my home-life is trying to find space for all the books I inevitably take home almost every day... anyone who knows me knows I have a book habit. After weeding my library a few months ago and getting rid of four bags of books, I found myself with two piles of renegades that couldn't quite fit on the shelves around my house, either because I wanted to keep a subject collected or because they didn't fit into any of the collections hogging the shelves already. Decorative bindings, literature, art books - the sort of stuff that the scholarly and craft books populating my space don't take too kindly to.

Lounging in the living room the other day, I started to think about what I had been telling all perspective roommates I interviewed while looking for someone to move into Anna's room - "I'm open to building shelves anywhere, making the most of our many walls and high ceilings". I looked long and hard at the slanted wall ahead of me and realized it had to be do be done. Enough thinking, plotting, contemplating, wanting - it was time to build. And so last Wednesday I spent a few hours designing the unit, accepted Anna's gracious offer for a ride to Home Depot, and put up these beauties.

I wanted the unit to utilize the high ceiling and the shelves to vary in size as to give me freedom to display books of various size and shape - everything from oversized art books to small 12mo fiction. I wanted it to be sleek and simple but have some design aspect to it - unlike the pine shelves we've hung elsewhere in the house with just white wall brackets. And I wanted it to be cheap and quick - I had a $100 budget for the project and one day off during which to do it. I ended up spending about $120 and about 6 hours (from design, shopping, to hanging). The materials I ended up using are as follows:

- Three 8' solid pine planks, one 12" deep, one 10" deep, one 8" deep (which is to say, 11.25", 9.25", 7.25" in non Home Depot measurements) - each cut in half to make 4' planks

- Two black coated metal vertical tracks, 8' tall, fitted with double slats for double prong brackets

- Twelve double pronged, flat top shelving brackets - the kind that allow the shelf to sit atop the bracket, rather than fit into a predetermined length, and allow screws to secure the shelf

- Sandpaper to round the front facing edges and corners of the shelves

- Various screws, molly screws, and a stud finder (the stud finder put me over my budget by $10, but was worth it)

- Beer (in this case, Sierra Nevada. An out of budget necessity for any sort of home improvement day-off projects)

Some pics of the process:

Blank, empty wall, with track waiting to be hung

Messy room, shelves waiting to be hung

The first molly screw in the wall. Fuck these things.*

The first track up!

(Note my awesome, crucial magnetic level)

Both tracks up! Screwdriver was just as crucial as my small power-screwdriver

Sanding while listening to mamba, salsa, and spanish pop music

Proud chiquita post sanding six gorgeous pine shelves to perfection

HUNG!

Yes, I used a stool instead of a ladder.

Yes, they're all perfectly level.

YES they're GORGEOUS!!! And sort of adjustable!

Shelves increase in depth as they go down, with 12" depth on the bottom.

In progress.

(Note the Harry Callahan monograph, the melodica,

the Cinderella round tunnel book, various amigurumis,

and my Humument collection)

*Why I can never remember to buy metal rather than plastic molly screws will never cease to blow my mind. I tried to get molly's in because I'm terrified of ripping down a wall, but after many failed attempts - this was my only successful molly - I listened to my stud finder, my wall knocks, the effort needed to get a screw into the wall, and my gut, and accepted I was actually screwing into studs in walls I swore were made of dust.

I have so much more to put on these lovely shelves but am still trying to figure out what should go there, what should stay in my room, in my studio, in the kitchen, etc etc. I know I want to leave space on the shelves for knick-knacks and front facing display books, and that I want to keep from filling them up right away.

I love the living room bookshelf conundrum, and totally buy into the notion that the books you choose to display say something about who you are and how you wish to be seen. So, what do I put out here? Scholarly books that are of interesting subject matter - the stuff I collect to study reality TV, fame, and digital realities? Ethnomusicology books? Festival/performance studies stuff? Fiction, and if so, my favorite authors or the stuff I've yet to read? Art books, and if so, which ones - photography, drawing, weird stuff, folk art? Ethnobotany/food culture books? Comic books and graphic novels? Poetry, and if so, just my favorites or all of it? A rotating selection of my favorite books from varying subjects? I like the idea of curating specimens from various subject matters, but I also HATE breaking up groups - I mean, how well are Geertz, Russell, Springsteen, Taylor-Wood and H.S. Thompson going to all get along?

I know I want to keep my craft books there, as I do most of my non-desk craft work in the living room. I know I want to keep the books I'll be using for the class I'll be teaching in the spring. I know I want to keep my special first editions and decorative bindings there. And I know I want to have bric-a-brac all over the place. But other than that, I'm still trying to figure out what goes where. It's a fun process for sure, and I have to be ever cognizant of the books that will continue to come back home with me in the months to come...

Hopefully the first in a series of apartment improvement based posts! So stay tuned.