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B U I L T- I N B O O K S H E LV E S F RO M I K E A B I L L Y
BOOKCASES–HOW TO DO IT
MAY 18, 2015 BY AM Y ! 94 COMMENTS

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I showed off these fabulous IKEA bookshelves my Dad recently built for us in this post

HERE...If you missed it, this was just a blank wall in our living room. This post has the step by

step tutorial of how to build these bookshelves using IKEA Billy Bookcases (or similar
Search

inexpensive bookcases). They look just like built-ins and provide great storage!

After they were built, I decorated and styled them and I showed them off in this post HERE.

•DON’T MISS A THING!!•

A year or so later, I painted the room a darker color and now the shelves really pop. You can

read about that update HERE.

•DO YOU KNOW JESUS?•

• O U R 2 0 2 1 H O L I D AY G I F T I D E A S •

• F E AT U R E D I N •

Since I didn’t actually do most of the hands-on work, I suppose it is easy for me to say how

simple this is, but this project is certainly simple compared to building a wall of shelves from

scratch.

A quick recap if you missed the first post: I’d been dreaming about building these shelves since

we moved in our new home. At one point last year, I showed my Dad a picture of some shelves

that were similar and asked if he could help me with the harder parts of construction. He

basically showed up one day with the lumber and did the entire project for me himself; I sure

am one lucky girl!

Here is the space I started with. This picture is from our move-in day before we had the room

painted pale gray. This is the home’s formal living room just inside the front door, we use it

more as a quiet reading/library space since formal entertaining isn’t high on our list these days.

Sources are linked throughout and listed at the end of the post.

What is nice about the space, which is open to our foyer, is that the walls already created the

perfect “niche” to put shelves in. I had two shelves already from my former home office so I

picked up two more tall Billy bookshelves from IKEA.

H O W TO B U I L D B U I LT- I N B O O K C A S E S F R O M I K E A B I L LY

B O O K S H E LV E S

To figure out how to best use the space, the picture below shows how we did the math. I

measured the space in between the walls, in our case it was almost exactly 12 feet, or 144 inches,

then I subtracted out the width of the bookcases which are 31″ each, or a total of 124 inches.

That left me with 20 inches of open space to cover over with trim, so I knew we would need

five 5″ boards on the ends and in between each shelf.

Once I had that calculated, I just had to figure out the top part of the shelves. I knew I wanted

to go as close to the ceiling as I could, and as luck would have it I found out you can purchase

Billy Shelf Extenders from IKEA to make the standard bookshelves taller.

This is the shelf we used (four of them) in case you aren’t familiar with them. If you don’t live

near an IKEA, these are a good online substitute, but check your measurements!

We added them to the top of each shelf which added another 14″ to the height of the shelves

and made such a huge difference. You can see them below with the additional height, which

got them much closer to the ceiling.

Here is how we {by we, I mean my Dad} built them.

I should add that to do this job, a mitre saw and a nail compressor are helpful in addition to

other basic tools and painting equipment.

He started by building essentially a rectangular box to set the shelves in to keep them steady

and in place.

We also pulled the molding off the wall, then saved it to use again once we were done.

We did not cut a hole in the back of the bookshelves for the outlets, although you certainly

could.

From there, he set the shelves in the base, spaced evenly, and then secured them to the wall.

Once they were secured, he cut and painted the boards to “build” them into the walls. All the

boards came from the molding and trim section at Home Depot. Below shows how he secured

the large top board to the ceiling and the bookcases. This front board was later covered with

more molding so the gap above it didn’t show.

Just a quick note in here about why you don’t see lights along the top of these shelves as was

my original intention. My father, who spent his career as a Fire Chief, was not going to let me

drop extension cords behind the shelves to run power to the lighting along the top!

Before we started building, we hired an electrician to come out to place a new outlet at the

ceiling on top of the shelves so we could plug the cords into it directly. However, our home was

built during the early 2000’s building boom, and our builder used a construction technique

rare in single-family homes known as “pre-cast” construction. Essentially our house doesn’t

have traditional studs, but rather our exterior walls are solid concrete. It’s nice for our heating

bills, but it makes it pretty much impossible to run a wire up the wall behind the drywall.

After about 100 holes in the wall and a hefty electrician bill, we gave up on the lighting idea. I

think they look nice enough without it.

Here is a closer shot with the molding boards tacked on. He gave everything a coat of paint

prior to nailing it up, then everything got another coat of paint at the very end. (Tip: you can

take one of the shelves in to the store and have them tint your white paint to match exactly)

After all the construction was done, we caulked the gaps, then I spent an evening spackling all

the little tiny holes in the sides of the bookshelves. The spackle will pop out if I want to

arrange the shelves differently but it just made them look much more finished.

Here is a “finished” shot of them {minus some touch-up areas}. Aren’t they beautiful?
And again, here is my Dad who gets all the credit for this project. I bet he’ll run for the golf

course or the baseball field for sure the next time I say “So Dad, I was thinking about doing this

project– would you like to help?” but in the meantime, I am so grateful that he did this for

us. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments, and I’ll ask ‘the man.’

Update: More recently we painted and restyled the room, you can see how it currently looks in

this post HERE.

See the other posts on this project : The How To Build Them and The Final “Styled” Reveal!

Here is an easy-to-pin image so you can remember this project for your next open weekend!

You can also see how I used Billy bookcases to build additional shelving under the counter in

our kitchen HERE.

If you would like to see more of our home, here are some other posts:

Our Complete Home Tour

2 Years of Projects {Recap} Updating a Builder Home

Holiday Home Tour

DIY Mudroom from a Coat Closet

{You can follow more of our DIY projects via the buttons under my photo!}

We also offer a FREE Printable Whole House Home Decor Planner to help you organize and

simplify your home decorating process. Simply click HERE for more information or to

receive your free printable planner.

XO,

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