[gwendolynne]

Hubby and I are looking for some alternatives to either building a wall of built-ins or buying bookcases for one wall in our living room. The wall is approximately 12 ft long and we'd like white bookcases with crown moulding on them. The bookcases wouldn't be holding a ton of books, would be more of a display wall with built-in lighting, holding objects d'art and the occasional curious 10 lb. cat.

(Ikea) Options we have considered include:

- Liatorp bookases: buy 3, line 'em up. This would be the easy way to go and it's the look we're going for, but I find them quite expensive for particleboard/foil and we're not huge fans of the shiny white finish, nor of the seemingly flimsy construction (based on the ones we've seen in store).

- Billy bookcases: buy 3-4, line 'em up, add crown moulding. Not a bad option, cheaper than the Liatorps, although we'd also buy the height extension units. Cons are that we don't love the brightness of the white finish and I don't think the laminate finish is so easy to paint. Since they are also a little narrower than other options, I think we'd also need 4 units, not 3 to fit the space which brings the price up a little.

- Buy 3 of the shallow, tall Pax wardrobes (probably in the antique finish pine) to line up, again, add crown moulding. Paint them white, along with the shelves. This is the cheapest option so far, I think and I'm looking for any downsides to it. Would this work? Comments?

Building the wall out of kitchen cabinets had also occurred to be, but I think we'd be facing the same too-bright shade of white problem as with the white Billys. Any comments on this?

Thanks in advance

[kelly]

I have recently put together PAX and you won't be thinking its flimsy! The only issue you might encounter is having to buy the shelves vs them being already included in the bookcases- perhaps you've already costed that out. An additional advantage is that if you did want to put doors on them, you have a lot of options down the road.

PAX rocks!

[GardenOfDarwin]

Hi Gwendolynne! Welcome to the forums!

Have you made a decision on your living room storage yet? I'm curious...

Susan

[gwendolynne]

Thanks for the welcome, I lurk lots, but post little since I'm not doing a kitchen yet, but hope to eventually.

We were in Montreal visiting family this weekend (our local Ikea is Ottawa, but the Mtl. store is sooooo much bigger & better) so of course I found time for an Ikea side trip to check out ideas. Right now it's looking like a row of Billy bookcases is going to be the best fit, space and price-wise. While I would prefer the size and symmetry of the 3 wide/shallow Pax units, when you factor in buying the shelves, the price of the Billys is quite a bit lower. I did see a few other ideas that I liked, including using glass shelves in the Billy units - since we'll be using these mostly for display, it upps the formality level a bit, especially with lights installed in the top.

I saw a whole living/dining setup done at Ikea with the Liatorp units and really liked the look, but I just can't rationalize the fact that they are 4 times the price of a Billy, so I'm thinking about getting the white Billys and then adding crown moulding to the top, trim on the front and some Liljestad door panels, painting them and using them on the sides for a more traditional look. Also considering painting the inside of the back panel a light blue and potentially switching it to beadboard, but I haven't quite decided yet.

I'll update here when we actually decide and/or get started on this project. If anyone has any input or has done something similar before, it would be great to hear about it.

Regardless of what we decide for the living room, we definitely have 2 Pax projects in our future - our master bedroom (closet and maybe more) and we'll likely be basically lining the walls of our basement in Pax when we get around to finishing things down there.

[mid century madam]

I have three billy bookcases in my livingroom. I put a 24" between two 30" and I think that improved the look. I used the lighting that screws into the top of the bookcase -can't think of the name, but they are 10 watts each . I put small artwork in the bookcases and with the lights they look quite nice. . Mine are the light birch which added a touch of wood which the room really needed. I have used the same bookcases in a family room, and my long term plan is to move ALL of these bookcases into an office for a full two-walls of bookcases. I change things so often it's good to have a plan for the future!

By the way, I remember Canadian House and Home beefing up a Billy Bookcase the way you are suggesting, by adding crown moulding. I think they used the birch, and painted it white.

PAX: I've been thinking about using a pax unit in my front hall. I have a built in closet that looks like sh.......t. My first thought is to just rip it out altogether, but after having an architect look at the situation, he doesn't like how exposed my adjacent diningroom would be without the closet between it and the front door. He offered to "design" a closet for me, but that will end up costing a fortune, and I still won't know if I like it.

So, trying the pax unit seems like a good solution. At least I can return it if I don't like it! But I think it's a great looking system.