question for bookish people

[flea]

If money were no object, and in fact aesthetics was the major object, what sort of bookcases would you have in your house? Ideally, give me a link where I can drool over pictures, but feel free to describe your custom-built ones (real or imaginary).

See, I'm a believer in furniture porn, but I rarely see bookcases I admire. And I own almost exclusively cheap melamine and cheap foldable wood ones, of course. Thomas Moser uses gorgeous wood, but their styling is very, um, practical. It is not to drool, IMO. (http://www.thomasmoser.com/residential/res.products.browse.cat.php?cat_id=13). Levenger is not doing much for me, either. Whatcha got?

Me, I think I'd want built-ins, mostly.

Comments

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

If I was doing built-ins, I'd start with hardwood-faced plywood (cheaper and not as saggy as the real deal), with a hardwood face frame, and hardwood facings on the shelves, maybe with a nice bead detail.

Oh, wait. I did that.

I used maple because I prefer it to oak, and I happened across some maple-faced plywood (not a usual item) at the Depot. Otherwise I would've used birch. All told, counting wood, hardward, stain, and varnish, they cost about $400 for the four of them. Doesn't count the tools, although the really expensive tools are really only needed for the facings and face frame. If you used iron on veneer for the edges of the plywood, you could build them with a circular saw and a drill.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

And I'm with everyone else on Henry Higgins library if money was no object, complete with circular staircase.