How do you store books?

[cdlamis]

Most of Julia's books right now are stored away in her armoire and all her board books are in a basket on the floor. I want to be able to store the nicer books on a shelf so we can easily get to them and see them.

What do you do with your child's books?

Are there any shelves that are deep enough for books? I want just a single shelf, not a bookcase. All the cute ones at Target aren't deep enough.

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b35d0802848f *December pictures

[holliam]

I admit it--I'm a book addict! I must have looked at every book storage solution. I have not successfully found just a shelf that is deep enough.

Instead, we got the small Pottery Barn magazine rack to keep books right next to what my husband calls "The Reading Corner". I've attached a picture of it so you can see what it looks like. It's not a shelf, but it holds several books. If you got the larger one it might even work better for you: http://tinyurl.com/2k829

(note about picture...so far, this is the most finished part of her room since no other furniture is in yet! Still no prints or anything on the walls but I love this spot. I sit in it every morning and night thinking about Lily. It gives me such peace.)

Because we love books so much, we also ordered a 6-foot bookcase (3-foot wide) for her room that matches her furniture. (We got furniture that converts to grow with her, and it should last til she's a pre-teen!).

So, we are keeping the bulk of her books on there. I'd show you a picture, but it hasn't arrived yet! I'd be too embarrassed to show the number of books we own for her already too. ;)

Holli

[pritchettzoo]

If you or someone you know is/are handy, you can take a cute shelf from Target and add a piece of wood on top to make a shelf (say a 1x6 board). You can even get Home Depot/Lowes to cut the board to the right length for you. Once you got home, you'd have to fasten it securely to the shelf and paint the whole thing. You might be able to find a "cute" shelf that has such a pattern that your plain board on top wouldn't look odd. Otherwise, there are shelves at Home Depot/Lowes that can have decorative metal supports. Or you could put the shelf up with L-brackets (in studs since it will be holding books) and put faux supports underneath to be decorative.

I hope that bunch of babble makes some sense...

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[Kimberly H]

Holli, I love Lily's reading corner. I used to love to go into Mia's room while we waited for her - it made the whole thing seem more real and it's the only "finished" room in the house! Who am I kidding, I still love going in there.

Mia has tons of books too and it's always a challenge to find places to keep them organized - I think the rack is neat!

[goosey77]

At Target, go to the bath hardware section. (you know, where towel holders etc. are sold.) Here they sell an awesome shelf that is 8 inches deep and works perfectly for books. I prefer it over shelves sold outside of bath b/c it has wainscotting below the ledge and really looks nice in the nursery. (I actually discovered it when I was returning a set of shelves to Target b/c they weren't deep enough for books, LOL)

ETA - here is a link to picture of a hamper with the wainscotting.... I think the shelf is sold in the same collection (couldn't find it online, though).
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_10/601-7512758-0220117?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B00008SJYG
(oops forgot the link!)

[C99]

I have a very small bookshelf in Nate's room right now and that holds all of the Beatrix Potter and My Book House books from my childhood. I keep all of his board books in a plastic bin from IKEA that sits on the floor in his playroom. In addition to these, we have 3 bookshelves for books and they are all overflowing. We are definitely one of those families that has a stack of books on every available surface -- the toilet tank, the kitchen cart, the front hall table, etc.

I recently bought some shelves from IKEA and they are wide enough for books, although I intend to use them for storage and organization.

[houseof3boys]

I have been eyeing this for months at Pottery Barn Kids (online or catalog online so I haven't seen it IRL) for books.

http://tinyurl.com/3f4el

I saw one on ebay that someone made but it didn't look nearly as nice.



http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/4589.jpg

[jamsmu]

We have the PBK Cameron 1-shelf. It sits below his window and is 2/3 full of books sitting upright (like in a library.) I also placed a PBK medium basket on the side (the other 1/3 of the shelf.) This holds his rattles and board books.

We purchased the Robin shelves from IKEA. (I think they're called Robin, they look like tic tac toe shelves and are in the baby section.). The top, open shelf is where we store his oversized, tall books.

[kcimato]

Check out the One Step Ahead Catalog. They have a sling type bookcase very similar to the ones we use at school. The books face out so the kids can see them. It most likely won't hold all your books, but it is nice to rotate them. It sells for $59.00.