Expert to Beginner

Bookcase Project Finished

A little background on this project will clarify some of the design decisions I made.  The bookcase planning began almost twenty years ago, shortly after we moved into this house.  The living room is a little strange because it started out nearly twice the size (20 x 29), but then a little over half of the floor (16.5 x 20) was dropped down 9 1/2".  This was after the rather large fire place (30" x 76") was already built in the middle of one long wall.  This put the fire place in the corner.  As we learned over the years, this made the room very difficult to furnish in a workable manner.  The 9 1/2" drop without a step was dangerous, but adding a step along the whole drop would have robbed too much floor space.
But I digress.  within a year or so, I added a wooden ceiling with a too fancy (as it turned out), big crown molding.  I was already planning on removing the little brick wall and building some kind of built-in around the doorway into the kitchen, so I installed the molding along that wall 8" out to accommodate the deepest I could go because of the french doors.  This dictated that I had to make each side of the bookcase in two parts to be able to install it behind that big molding.  Plus as time went on for this project, I got older and not as able to handle large heavy objects as easily (something I couldnt imagine when this started).

The areas to either side of the doorway were too narrow to divide horizontally, but also the right was almost too wide for a single shelf of books.  We have a lot of books and I knew that the shelves would be loaded.  Over the years I toyed with lots of ideas  I dont like stiffeners added to the front/back of shelves and I definitely wanted adjustable shelves.  Finally I decided to build the torsion box shelves because they would be light weight, very stiff, and would not look any different that a slab shelf.

During most of the planning, the cases were going to have doors.  About 10 years ago, I even bought the hardware, but once I had the basic cases installed and we put some books on them to get a feel for how they would look and work with the rest of the room, we realized that we really liked them without doors.  I had already spent a great deal of time getting together straight grained and straight material from which to build the doors, and done most of the milling to get the material to finished size, but Ill just have to use it on another project.

The project was in the planning stage for so long because there was a lot to do before I could begin.  We had to settle on what we were going to do with what was an ugly fireplace, and then get it done.  That decision took a long time because of all the other projects that were being done.  Before we retired, work on projects went very slowly most of the time, and after retirement, there were so many projects that needed to be done.  I contracted out the really big projects outside the house (barn, driveway, sun room, deck,etc.), but I prefer to do everything in the house (master bathroom remodel), and I always am right there when contractors are working.  Anyway, we finally decided how to deal with the fireplace last year and I began that project.  With the fireplace completed, it was time to get on with the bookcases.

I had decided to build around an extension of the jamb that was already installed in the doorway into the kitchen.  There was going to be a step like what I had already installed in two places along the drop in the floor.  In order to keep things aligned without having to do a bunch of surface nailing (I hate surface nailing) I drilled dowel holes in the existing jamb and in the extension.  I also replaced the original bull nose because it was thinner than what I like and what I had already used along the floor drop and other steps.  Rather than nail the bull nose in place, I opted to dowel and the screw it to the jamb extension.  The Jessem Doweling Jig has been a real life saver.


The current project is refinishing/replacing the rest of the doors in the hallway (6).  After that, will be a real challenge, redoing the pantry.  I have a rather complex idea for the shelving, but by the time I get to it, who knows what Ill do.