Finding a bookcase that is just right for where you want one is tricky, but with just basic woodworking skills. It's quite easy to make your own. All I needed here was a saw, plane, sandpaper, drill and screwdriver. Some bullnosed hardwood window sill, a sheet of plywood forr the back and screws and brackets. Unlike mdf or laminated chipboard they don't bend with the weight if books and love a bit of polish! We wanted one to fit this space in the hall. The only bit that took some time was rounding the corners and matching the contour of the edge. (note my wife's "coathanger decoration").
Thanks for that, but such things aren't that hard. In my working life as my wife likes to say, "I never did a hand's turn, just swanned around large stores all day in sharp suits and highly polished shoes." (I did compile the budgets). It used to make me smile in that I always said I'd do the week's shopping for her and her housekeeping money would go further because of the staff discount. But she never took me up in in it, why? "Because you wouldn't do it, you'd make a girl do it." Too right! Any "girl" would be happy to do it, pushing a trolley round a store chatting to her mates on different departments as she did it. It would beat being stuck on a checkout all day. For less prominant storage. There's lots of flat pack laminated chipboard units you can buy. Probably cheaper than making your own. But for specific items, it's easy enough to design something, then take the measurements to a wood yard and have the sections cut to size. You just have to screw it together. My wife wanted a unit in our box bedroom to store all her card making kit. So I made this with a pull down front to use. while she sorted out what she wanted to take downstairs, she uses a little fold down table in the lounge to make her cards and jewellery. There's not so much in here now, as she's comandeered the cocktail cabinet in the big teak wall unit with its pull down door in my "den"...well the front room. (we're not into cocktails). This saves her having to go upstairs so often as she's less mobile now. On another wall is my "office." I built around a length of kitchen worktop. There's a lot of storage space. This has two pull-out tables to save space. The height of the table on which my laptop sits I designed to suit the old leather recliner which we replaced downstairs, this is lower and more comfortable than a convential office chair. I carpeted the slope of the ceiling over the staircase that intrudes a bit into this room. It makes an ideal footrest.
Thanks for the kind words. On reflection, probably the bookcase isn't such a good idea, if cost is a consideration. This is our lounge in 2013, just after we'd had the decorators in. The whole of this wall I'd panelled out in Teak faced plywood twenty years before and I made a double shelf the full length of that wall about knee height with the window sill timber for books and VHS videos. We decided to make the room lighter by having the wood painted. So I removed the shelves and used most of it to make the bookshelves in the hall. I also made this "bookcase" at that time. We decided to keep that and just had the panelling above it painted. The wood panel just became the back of the bookcase. The cost of this wood now is rather expensive as it doesn't come from "sustainable sources."
I agree that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find a bookcase that matches the interior. Like any other piece of furniture, it either doesn't fit your room or it's too expensive. Making one yourself is not so difficult and costs less. I have been making furniture for my home myself for a long time now. I have two bedside tables, a kitchen table, and some chairs in my collection, and I have also made my own furniture for my yard. A couple of planks, a bunch of nails and a benchtop jointer and everything is done.
