Our Library Wall + 5 Things We Learned & Did Differently From Our Last Bookcase

When we built a bookcase wall in the living room of our old house, we learned a lot about what worked for us, what didn’t, and what we would do differently next time. From the first time we toured our current home, I knew that I wanted to build a library wall in the living room and I knew exactly where and how.

I loved that bookcase in our old house and I had a lot of fun styling and rearranging all my favorite decor pieces on it, but it always felt a bit crowded with the over-sized shelves.

Here are 5 things we learned to do differently on this library wall from our last bookcase wall:

1.Concealed Storage- I knew I wanted to build our shelves off of cabinets in order to provide concealed storage for things like DVDs, games, etc.. The bookcase that we built in our old house held baskets for some concealed storage, but we really needed more than that. I also feel like the cabinets give the library wall a more polished and finished look while also making it look more permanently built in.

2.A Variation in Shelf Heights & Widths- Our old bookcase had all really large shelves, which was exactly what I had asked for. I had a lot of large scale decor and had been used to living with small bookshelves that didn’t fit a lot of it, so I wanted shelves that would work for those larger pieces. After working with them for a while, I realized that wasn’t really what I wanted. Yes, I wanted to be able to fit my larger decor, but the smaller decor looked a bit funny in such large shelves, so I learned that what I really wanted was a variation of sizes. For this library wall, I designed a variety of short and tall shelves with a mix of different widths. This design functions better for us, with all the shelves at a more appropriate scale and accommodating decor and books of different sizes.

3.Primer- We didn’t prime the old bookcase first, and the knots from the pine wood bled through the white paint, leaving yellow spots all over. We learned a valuable lesson with that and we knew better this time. We primed everything before painting it.

4.Bookcase Backing- We built the bookcase right against the wall at the old house and just painted the wall behind the shelves white. This was a budget friendly option, but for this library wall, I wanted a backing to make it look both more finished and more decorative. We entertained the idea of shiplap, but decided on the sheets of white bead board instead as they were thinner and more budget friendly. I’m really happy with our choice and I love the look of the bead board behind the shelves!

5.Seal Them- If you change and rearrange your decor frequently like I do, you’ll definitely want to seal the bookcase after painting it. Technically, we haven’t done this yet because we built the bookcase in the winter and we really need good ventilation when using a sealer like a poly. We will probably have to touch up the paint in a couple spots, but when the weather warms up a little more, we will be opening up the windows, turning on all the fans, and sealing the whole bookcase. We will probably use a satin finish, with a slight sheen but not too glossy.

After pricing out the library wall we wanted, we decided we had a to wait a while as it was a bit out of our budget. I searched for over a year for used cabinets to use as a base for our bookcase with no luck. When we were finally ready to build the library wall, we ended up purchasing budget friendly unfinished cabinets from Home Depot. To keep the budget low, we used inexpensive pine boards, pre-primed trim, and white bead board sheets, also from Home Depot. After the bookcase was built, we primed and painted everything. As I mentioned above, we plan to seal everything when the weather warms and we have proper ventilation. We will also probably add a little more trim and the cabinets will get hardware as well. Our projects are always a little at a time around here as we work with our available time and budget.

Although we have a few finishing touches to take care of on our library wall, I’ve really enjoyed styling and decorating it for the last couple seasons. Blending the new and vintage decor with our new and vintage books and being able to beautifully display it all in our living room is exactly what I have been wanting. I look forward to sharing this space more in the future as we style it to suit our needs each season.