Another Bookcase "Help Needed" Question

Gary L

I sure hope someone here has some pictorial ideas they can share with me.

I'm just finish up with all the finish work in this new home and now my customer wants me to add bookcases on either side of the fire place.

They will be knotty pine with a bottom storage area for news papers and kindling wood about 14 inches high and will have 3 or 4 shelves above for books and open backs. The storage box will come off the walls as far as the lower fireplace hearth. The other shelves above will be 9.5 inches deep and between 8 - 11 inches between.

I need some design ideas that will go with this entirely knotty pine room and keep coming up with a blank on where to start. I've searched the net for bookcase ideas and can't find anything that even comes close to what they have visioned.

I'll have no issues building any design I just can't picture anything and I need pics to get my head around the project.

Any ideas sure will be great from you guys. Here is the room in question if I have the picture posting technique correct.

NG on the picture because I don't yet have the required 15 posts.

It's a large blue stone fire place with T&G knotty pine from floor to ceiling on both sides.

Thank you all.

Gary

Gary L

Maybe I have the magic number now.



Gary

Gus Dering

Not this job but I did a firewood rollout next to a fireplace. I had a tin knocker make a galvanized liner for the drawer box and put the box on heavy duty slides.

That could easily have been done on this job. It sounds like the basic bones of this job fits the bill of yours though. Base cabinet with wood top and bookcase above.

The knotty pine lends itself to a real simple line design IMO.

The biggest point of my reply is that the firewood storage can be handled in a conventional cabinet with a rollout.

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Gary L

Thanks Gus but these are elderly summer time folks who will store only papers and fire starting stuff in the bottoms. They want something more in line with a lift lid kind of like a bench seat but just to store little stuff and never the fire wood. They might have 2-3 fires per summer but just don't want the book shelves down on the floor where they can't bend to reach so I have to fill in the bottom with storage area.

Gary

Rio

It sounds like the homeowners have a pretty good idea of what they want. I would think a symmetrical layout on either side of the fireplace would work. It looks like the tricky part is going to be to detail around the hearth. It might be a good idea to use a filler strip on either side of the stone work and start the sides of the bookcases immediately next to the hearth protrusions.

Decide on how far on either side you want to take it out, face the storage box sides with either knotty pine or maybe a different type of wood to get some contrast going, maybe put lids on the tops of the storage boxes so one could sit there if desired and think about what type of wood you're going to want to use for the tops of the boxes, if you want to stay with the knotty pine or use something different for contrast which I think would be nice. If there are any other types of wood being used in the room maybe go with that to tie it together.

Another thing to think about is how high you want the bookcases to go. I think it would be nice to have the tops of them be lower than the mantle to keep the hierarchy of the fireplace being the predominant design feature in the room. It might be nice to have the top of the bookcase with a larger shelf and use that for displaying art of some sort, or trophies or whatever...............................

RobQuillin

When I look at you photo there are a few things that stand out to me. First there is a switch next to the fireplace. This will need to be addressed in your design. Secondly I notice the metal vents in the fireplace. I would look for some black cast hardware to incorparat into the box. Thirdly I notice that there is not alot of detail in the wall except the fireplace. This tells me that I would want to incorparate some detail into the shelves but not to much as to overshadow the fireplace.

When I am starting to design something like this I usually walk around the house and just look at the different details in the house that I think might compliment the fireplace or that might work well in my overall concept. Once I do that then I just start sketching out my ideas and see how I like the way they look.

Just a question, does the shelves have to be attached to the bottom boxes or could they be separate units?

Gary L

Thanks Rio for the very thoughtful response. I agree on all points and particularly not having a bookcase over power the fire place. I think my height will be up to the top of the top grates.

The fire place is not centered in the room. Right side has 48 inches for the case and the left has 58.

Thanks also Rob. I have the switches in the design scheme but good point for sure. I like the idea of the cast black hardware.

This part was funny to me. " There is not allot of detail in the walls" !

These folks are 83 & 85 and this is a rebuild of the previous 50 year old home that burned down last November. They want it to be just as it was and it was old and outdated. My motto is always "Give the customer exactly what he wants". I agree there is some busy stuff with wood, knotty pine from the Oak floors to the ceiling and not much of it jumps out but, they have pictures of the old and that's what they want so as long as they pay the freight I am on it and very agreeable.

It's been a long summer but considering we started in April and it is livable now I guess we did OK.



Gary

griffrs

It is a little late, but I have a nice picture of a rustic fireplace storage system. I uploaded it to imgur.com if anyone wants to check it out in the future.

imgur.com/ZEvXk

Having to make 15 posts before being allowed to link is harsh...