eero aarnio's bookcase

this reminds me of the overhead shelving in the section below. how many people could pull off sunflower yellow shelving? looks great here.

living with books

standard garage shelving. painted white, it takes on a new feeling.

the george nelson designed "omni" system, in his own home

a lovely overhead setup. good use of high wall space. love the daybed/sofas.

playwright tennesse williams had storebought cases placed together, then covered the seams between individual cases with molding & painted the whole thing brown. looks like one huge case. i could see this with ikea "billy" cases and a very simple molding.

the offices of grosset & dunlap, publishers, in the 60's. each dividing wall betwen offices is bookcase on one side, tackboard on the other. great divider idea for a home.

great idea. i'd love to see these fittings in brass with wood panels. (all above pictures from "living with books: 116 designs for homes and offices, by rita reif, 1968. thanks, abby!)

more shelves...

poul kjaerholm prototype modular bookcase

pretty ingenious. appears to allow addition of depth at random, as well as width and height, though he'd likely dissaprove of anything other than this perfect configuration.

blueprint for the design.

"string" system from sweden






apple crate storage from bailey's.

in a perfect world...

all windowsills would be built deep enough to accomidate 2 or 3 "book cribs" by bruno mathsson.

unique midcentury shelving

great way to make adjustable shelving. minimal metal ladder style struts with wooden chevron supports. simple and lovely. Ico Parisi, 1957. (the following images are from "Italy: Contemporary Domestic Landscapes 1945-2000, by the italian institute for foriegn trade.)

how to make a log look modern. marco zanuso, 1949

way before vitsoe. vico magistretti, 1946

suspended bookcase by Ernesto Nathan Rogers, 1958

another interesting suspended shelving unit, the Veliero by Franco Albini from 1938

a nice setup from the 30's. as minimal and "invisible" as shelving gets. i especially love the pared down rolling library ladder.

two favorites

atlas as4 shelving from brooklyn


vitsoe shelving by dieter rams for vitsoe in italy

abby low's library

abby is an incredibly talented designer and a very good friend with a beautiful collection of art and design books. this is a shot of her living room.

a few from home

this is my own personal library. i used physics and inexpensive materials in designing the shelving to avoid wrecking my rented apartment's walls, and to keep from cutting too much into book-buying money. the shelves are made of 3/4" mdf. there are no screws or attachments anywhere. the shelves are placed in two shallow recesses in the walls. this placement prevents the shelves from moving side-to-side. the weight of the horizontal shelves holds the vertical supports in place quite nicely. the edges are hand painted. it's very sturdy and easily installed.




the wall recesses are 5" deep on both fireplace sides, 3' deep on one wall side, 5" deep on the other. so it doesn't need much side support to keep the whole thing up.




the shelves fill the walls on either side of the fireplace



the largest books rest on the floor

*see update here