IKEA Billy Bookcases

Going to get our IKEA Billy Bookcases!

Tuesday morning we got up fairly early for us so we could arrive at the IKEA store a little after opening at 10:00 AM.

We drove our one ton Ford F350 pick up truck so we could load and bring home any bookcases we purchased.

We decided on a total of five Billy units, three of what we call double bookcases, and two single bookcases in birch veneer.

Let me tell you these bookcase units were HEAVY!

There isn't much customer service at IKEA - I guess it's to keep costs down.  You have to select the items you want and carefully write down the item, aisle and bin number.

On the way to check out we grabbed a loading cart and found the items in the pick up area ourselves.

The only checkouts were self service too.

I don't know but I would hope that someone could assist you if you needed help because as a woman there was no way I could lift any of the packages by myself.  But I don't know if that is true as there were no signs telling you to ask for assistance if you needed it.  

At least we didn't have to worry about the weight with our one ton pick up truck!

At first we were only going to put one of the single units downstairs for my Christmas china but after putting one in place we decided two together balanced out better on the wall.

  Hubby assembled both single units and even attached them to the wall.

We bought an extension so the unit would go to the ceiling but then we realized we couldn't use it in our living room with the crown molding.  

We only have one glass door and we need two so next week we will return to IKEA.

This whole project started because we needed to add a wall of bookcases in our upstairs paperback library so we could move some of our hardcover books upstairs.

When we got the units home I thought wouldn't it be wonderful if we used one of the single units in the living room for my Christmas china.  So that's how two single units ended up there instead of upstairs.

I had so much fun gathering all our Christmas china together last night and putting it in one display.

Read about my Christmas China Pattern (here).

I'm assisting Hubby with assembling the double units for upstairs.

We'll have to buy two more single units to go with the three double units to make a full wall of bookcases 9 feet in length for the library room.  We may buy extensions for all the upstairs bookcases.  I think some doors would look nice too and help to control the dust.

Have you visited IKEA yet?  

The price is good - for five Billy Bookcase units, one extension and one glass door - the total was just under $500.  We're trying to control our collections and clutter one step at a time.

You'll have to wait to see the upstairs library units installed in a future post.

Join me for:

Cindy's Show & Tell Friday

Our Wall of Books

OUR WALL OF BOOKS!

This is the view of one wall in our upstairs "Paperback" room.  

Can you tell we love to read!

We have books in just about every room in our home.

We recently cleaned out this room and gave around 800 paperbacks to Good Will.  

Some were so old the pages were yellowed and/or falling out.

My Hubby put up these shelves (I sanded them!).

They are just the right size for paperbacks.

Believe it or not we have two more bookcases in this room filled with science fiction paperbacks.

One of my favorite authors...Taylor Caldwell.  

You must read "A Prologue to Love"...it is wonderful and sad at the same time.

I read it in 9th grade - that started my love of this author's works.

The beat up book with the rubber band is her masterpiece, "Captains and Kings". 

You may remember that was a TV miniseries many years ago with the fantastic Richard Jordan.

Apparently it's available on DVD now.

I'll have to put an order into Amazon!

With all the junk that comes out of Hollyweird these days...why can't they do a miniseries on Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series?

You probably watched and/or read "Thorn Birds" another McCullough masterpiece.   

Some more well read books from John Jakes.  

You may also remember the great 1985 miniseries "North and South," with our beloved Patrick Swayze, based on John Jakes book of the same name.   In case you didn't know...there's more than one book to this historical series! 

I have "North and South" on DVD! 

This week we plan to go to Ikea to look at bookcases for the remaining wall without any books.  We like their "Billy" bookcases.  I want to move some of our reference hardcover books upstairs to make more room on our Danish wall unit in our living room for newer hardcover books.  

Do you like to read?

Are you crazy about books like we are?

No Kindle for us at Teacup Lane...we like to hold real books in our hands.

Christmas Round Ripple & Storage Solutions

I love all of these Christmas yarns!

I have a couple of crochet projects on hold (i.e., running out of yarn colors) and haven't touched my hooks in quite awhile.  Yesterday I was watching TV and thought about all the Christmas yarns I bought so I jumped up and gathered them all together...actually I threw them in a pile on the floor.  

What to make?  

I found two free round ripple patterns (here) and (here).  

Started one...couldn't follow the pattern so I tried the other one.  I couldn't follow that pattern either so I just did my own stitches after the third round making sure each round is not curling up.

This is what I've done so far.  

I don't know if it will be a large ripple throw or a huge doily when I'm done.

If it doesn't lie flat as I add more rounds I will probably frog it.

New Storage for our CDs

Today Hubby and I rearranged our DVD and CD storage. 

We moved our CD collection to a small dresser in our foyer.  Now that we have all of our music loaded on iTunes (and on our iPhones) we don't need to access the original CDs like we use to.

Believe it or not all of our CDs fit into the four drawers.  

I bought this little wooden dresser  ~ while single and in college ~ at a yard sale for $8.

I think I got my money's worth out of it since we still have it over 40 years later.    

CDs moved out and half our of DVD collection moved in.

We moved our animated, comedy, Christmas and chick flicks into the living room wall storage units.

Family Room DVD wall storage

We left the action, Sci-Fi, drama and westerns flicks in the family room wall storage.  

Sorry this photo is blurred (i.e., low light).

We bought these five wall units from Ikea several years ago.  

I like that they are notched out at the bottom for the baseboards so they lie flat against the wall.

We are going to have to get more serious about our storage for our collections in 2012.

But for now I have to thank my Hubby (he's a great packer!) for coming up with this temporary storage solution.  

He knew I was getting upset about the clutter.  

Love you Honey!  

Christmas Storage Ideas

Source: apartystyle.com via Teacup Lane on Pinterest

This is a neat idea for storing one's precious ornaments.

Every year when I take out my Christmas boxes I think there must be a better way to store all this stuff.  My Hubby is a fantastic packer and if I had him packed up all our Christmas decorations I'm sure he could reduce the number of boxes by fifty percent or more.

Source: marthastewart.com via Teacup Lane on Pinterest

                  I tried this cardboard system one year using cardboard wrapping paper rolls to wrap the lights but it seemed to take up even more room and the rolls were too long to fit into my boxes.

This is where we store all of our Christmas decorations...under our basement stairwell.  It's pretty deep...goes way back in.  I've taken several boxes out before I shot this photo...with all the boxes stored in there it is filled up to the top of the stairs.

 I may take our lights, wreaths and other items that heat and/or cold would not affect and put them out in our shed to make more room under the stairwell.

I do like the clear boxes because it is easier to identify what is in each box without opening it.  

What about you....have you found some nifty ways to store your Christmas decorations?