[divamum]

Hi all!

I'm space-challenged, broke, and have a husband with about 2000 CDs which are currently rotting in the basement and need to be properly shelved ....

Here's the background info (with my main questions in bold):

1. The beautiful built-ins my carpenter was going to make me have had to be (you should pardon the pun) shelved because we just can't spend the money right now. So, it's back to figuring out how to do it with Billy since we already have two of the 32" units.

2. Older home with small rooms, and the available walls are all "the wrong sizes" to make Ikea measurements fit easily. I think I've figured out how to do it, but it means maximising every square inch (and then some!), and I need to be able to use the full depth and height of Billy.

3. It will work out cheaper AND mean we can maximise the extra height our ceilings give us if we use Billy instead of Benno CD racks. HOWEVER... (and here's my big question): what can we use on Billy's shelves to double stack the disks? Once upon a time we had some of those some grey pressboard box inserts they used to sell,but I see they don't make those any more, and also note that the "half" inserts are discontinued too. So what does one do? We have a LOT of CDs and need to keep them organised library style.

4. Is there any solution for making Benno CD racks match the height of a Billy with an extension top? In a perfect world, that would probably be our best solution, but I don't see any way of making it work easily - is there a workaround/hack for that?

5. I'd love to run another set of Billy under a window, but it would need to be 29" tall. Is there a way of cutting Billy down, or is there another 11" deep shelf which might work? Our existing Billy are in white which, while not my favorite, means it should be easier to match with other items.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[atarunomiko]

Hi, I don't know if this helps at all, but I have too many CDs for the Billy CD inserts to be practical, so what I did was buy Billy extra shelves. If you're willing to drill yourself some new peg holes, you can fit 10 shelves into each unit. Including the 2 stationary shelves, this gives you 12 shelves per unit, much like a Benno. You can also put extra shelves in the height extensions, so you can go all the way up to the ceiling. The newer versions of the height extensions already have peg holes.

I first used glass extra shelves when they were $5 each, to save money, but found that once I had to start doubling up rows of CDs, they bowed a little after about 6 months. So I bit the bullet and paid the $12 each for wood veneer extra shelves. The problem is that the wood shelves are much thicker so it's a tighter fit. My CD box set boxes had to be segregated to maximize space.

If you don't want to double up your CDs, you can use half the number of Billy shelves with kitchen shelf organizers to simulate the older, discontinued Billy CD shelf lifts. For me, doubling up is not a matter of preference, but of necessity! ^_^;;

I would love it if anyone had any ideas of how to have two rows of CDs but make them easily accessible. I was thinking of how to do some kind of pull-out insert on hinges or something, but I'm not sure how to do it without it costing more than just doing custom shelving in the first place.

Like you, I've also always thought that Benno height extensions would be a great idea! Actually, I've always wanted wider Bennoes and was excited to see that they've just recently released a new 15" wide Benno, but to my chagrin they're only available in the 41.75" height! Useless to me. ^_^;;

But just in case it would be enough for anyone reading this, you can see it at:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20133985

C'mon, everyone, let's bug Ikea for a 31.5" wide, 79.5" tall, 6.75" deep Billy-Benno hybrid! =)

[divamum]

Wow, you're seriously doubling up! I hadn't thought about stacking them double-deep as well as double high (although, since I think my husband's estimate of the number of disks is on the conservative side, we may have no choice.....) I fear that this may wind up being what we have to do as a stopgap until we can go back to plan A of having the built-ins done, but since we do have a substantial collection (many of which are rare collector's disks) we really need to get as many of them upstairs as soon as possible as we can. Thanks for the tips.

What kind of kitchen organisers did you use to lift the row behind, if I may ask?

And also, are there any tips when drilling into pressboard?I've always been afraid to drill it because i have visions of it crumbling away.... is there a technique to do it cleanly?

Thanks!!

[atarunomiko]

Originally Posted by divamum

Wow, you're seriously doubling up! I hadn't thought about stacking them double-deep as well as double high (although, since I think my husband's estimate of the number of disks is on the conservative side, we may have no choice.....) I fear that this may wind up being what we have to do as a stopgap until we can go back to plan A of having the built-ins done, but since we do have a substantial collection (many of which are rare collector's disks) we really need to get as many of them upstairs as soon as possible as we can. Thanks for the tips.

What kind of kitchen organisers did you use to lift the row behind, if I may ask?

And also, are there any tips when drilling into pressboard?I've always been afraid to drill it because i have visions of it crumbling away.... is there a technique to do it cleanly?

Thanks!!

Hi,

I didn't go double high and double deep at the same time because I didn't think the shelves could take the weight load. if you're going double deep you're better off with more shelves single high. Otherwise I would worry about the shelf bowing so much that it eventually slips off the shelf pegs.

I don't have this setup anymore so I'm afraid I can't take pictures for you, but I took something similar to this:

Amazon.com: Spice Rack - Expand-A-Shelf - 2 Tier Model (White) (2"h x 12" - 23"w x 3.25"d): Kitchen & Dining

I can't find the actual model I used, but this is similar. I pulled apart the two pieces and nestled the L shapes together to get a simple rectangle and super glued them together. The rows of CDs were somewhat staggered not unlike the way the spices or cans are supposed to be. Not enough to pull out a CD from the back row without removing the ones in front of it, but enough to read the spines of the CDs in the back row. The way I have it now I have to guesstimate where the one I want is and pull out a handful of the front row to find it. Not a perfect system, but until I find an expandable house, the best that I can do. ^_^;;

When drilling the extra peg holes, you need to just go slowly and carefully. To ensure a clean hole, you can tape the area where you're going to drill with painter's tape and peel it off after you've drilled. I also put a guide on the drill bit to prevent it from going through to the other side, but unless you care about aesthetics the hole on the other side isn't going to hurt anything. I would also be careful about drilling too close to any existing peg holes. I've never had this happen, but I can imagine the weight of the full shelf might cause it to break through and fall down to the next peg hole if the holes are too close together.

Hope this helps!