The Collected Editions Shelf Porn: Show me the goods!

[The Whovian]

I also have a question for you guys. I noticed that you don't bag your trades in your collection. Is there a reason you don't bag them? Just wondering because I have most of mine bagged. Thought it would protect them better, but if you guys don't think bagging them matters, then I'll take them out of the bags and it will probably give me more room that I need.

[CP1234]

Bagging trades is weird. Would you bag all of your normal books/novels? I mean, if you want to protect them, go ahead, more power to you etc.

I've always treated trades as super disposable, but then again I constantly buy remaindered trades/HCs to save money, and trade/sell/give away stuff all the time.

[Dayle88]

I'm crazily careful with all of my books but the result is the same as CP1234 said. They are books, they survive on a shelf. I always figured floppies were bagged because of their fragility which when you consider they are really magazines to be thrown eventually it makes sense. A solution had to be found to protect them. It doesn't really apply to anything else.

[pud333]

Need some advice.

So my wife and I are renovating a new townhouse and one of the rooms will be converted in a den/man cave/entertainment room. One wall will have built-in shelves specific for my hardcover comic collection / collectibles. We're not sure if we'll do more builtins to wrap around the room, but for now, we'll only convert one wall. It's not a huge room. Only 12 x 12. So we have to use space carefully. Here's the wall in question:



As you can see, there's a strange ledge along the wall. This is actually the foundation wall that juts in like this. It's kind of an eyesore, so that's why we're doing the builtins there, to cover it all up. The wall is 12 ft long, the ceiling is 8 ft high. The foundation / ledge sticks out about 6 inches. And from the ledge to the ceiling is about 33-35 inches.

So my initial plan was this: I would have a shelf about halfway up from the ledge to the ceiling, that way you have two rows of approx 15 or more inches for the large books. (eg: DC Absolutes, Dark Horse Library editions, Humanoids slipcase editions, etc.) From the ledge down, you'd have shelving for more traditional hardcovers. From the ledge down, the builtin shelves will be about 10-11 inches deep. But from the ledge to the ceiling, because it is already 6 inches deep, those shelves will be 16 inches deep if I try to make the builtin a straight line from the ceiling to the floor. So my question is this: do I do that, with the end result being those books up top will be pushed deep in and not aligned with the other books on the lower shelves, or do I put essentially a filler there, eating up the 6 inches and thus have all my book shelves be 10-11 inches deep and uniform? I'm sure it will look fine either way, but I just figured I'd get some feedback if possible. What would you guys do? I'm sorry if I'm not explaining it well. I can post some drawings if it is confusing to people.

We're doing a full gut of the entire townhouse, so the renovations should be done by end of May at the latest hopefully. Maybe sometime in June I'll have shelf porn to show off, heh. Right now everything is in rubbermaid bins, so there's not much to show.

[Pa5cal]

Okay, shelf porn time. Finally got all my books up to my new place, put up the new shelves and sorted my collection out. There's not too much rhyme or reason to the way I've "organized" the shelves, so if you suffer from OCD, don't look too closely:-) Had to get rid of my old 5x5 Expedits, because my gf didn't like the colour anymore. Bought Liatorp from Ikea instead.

"Panoramic view":

very nice! Impressive - anything in there from overseas? All American?

[Spike-X]

I also have a question for you guys. I noticed that you don't bag your trades in your collection. Is there a reason you don't bag them?

For the same reason I don't put my regular books in bags.

[NZ_InFerno]

Need some advice.

So my wife and I are renovating a new townhouse and one of the rooms will be converted in a den/man cave/entertainment room. One wall will have built-in shelves specific for my hardcover comic collection / collectibles. We're not sure if we'll do more builtins to wrap around the room, but for now, we'll only convert one wall. It's not a huge room. Only 12 x 12. So we have to use space carefully. Here's the wall in question:



As you can see, there's a strange ledge along the wall. This is actually the foundation wall that juts in like this. It's kind of an eyesore, so that's why we're doing the builtins there, to cover it all up. The wall is 12 ft long, the ceiling is 8 ft high. The foundation / ledge sticks out about 6 inches. And from the ledge to the ceiling is about 33-35 inches.

So my initial plan was this: I would have a shelf about halfway up from the ledge to the ceiling, that way you have two rows of approx 15 or more inches for the large books. (eg: DC Absolutes, Dark Horse Library editions, Humanoids slipcase editions, etc.) From the ledge down, you'd have shelving for more traditional hardcovers. From the ledge down, the builtin shelves will be about 10-11 inches deep. But from the ledge to the ceiling, because it is already 6 inches deep, those shelves will be 16 inches deep if I try to make the builtin a straight line from the ceiling to the floor. So my question is this: do I do that, with the end result being those books up top will be pushed deep in and not aligned with the other books on the lower shelves, or do I put essentially a filler there, eating up the 6 inches and thus have all my book shelves be 10-11 inches deep and uniform? I'm sure it will look fine either way, but I just figured I'd get some feedback if possible. What would you guys do? I'm sorry if I'm not explaining it well. I can post some drawings if it is confusing to people.

We're doing a full gut of the entire townhouse, so the renovations should be done by end of May at the latest hopefully. Maybe sometime in June I'll have shelf porn to show off, heh. Right now everything is in rubbermaid bins, so there's not much to show.

I don't see why you have to push the books above the ledge all the way back , just have them a couple of inches back from the edge, and you should have enough room on the shelves below the ledge to do the same . It wil look nice and uniform, and any longer books can go higher up on the deeper shelving.

Another option is to put built in shelves above the ledge, and then make( or buy) bookcases level with the ledge. The shelving won't stick out as far as the bookcases will, it'll have a recessed display look. The bookcases will be the "reading material" and accessible area. It visually "breaks up" the wall of books, and could make it easier to change the room around in the future.

Anyway that is a big job ahead of you, good luck.

[The Whovian]

I'm crazily careful with all of my books but the result is the same as CP1234 said. They are books, they survive on a shelf. I always figured floppies were bagged because of their fragility which when you consider they are really magazines to be thrown eventually it makes sense. A solution had to be found to protect them. It doesn't really apply to anything else.

Thanks guys

[pud333]

I don't see why you have to push the books above the ledge all the way back , just have them a couple of inches back from the edge, and you should have enough room on the shelves below the ledge to do the same . It wil look nice and uniform, and any longer books can go higher up on the deeper shelving.

Another option is to put built in shelves above the ledge, and then make( or buy) bookcases level with the ledge. The shelving won't stick out as far as the bookcases will, it'll have a recessed display look. The bookcases will be the "reading material" and accessible area. It visually "breaks up" the wall of books, and could make it easier to change the room around in the future.

Anyway that is a big job ahead of you, good luck.

Good points. Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I thought about just not pushing them all the way back, but whenever I've done that in the past, it irks me whenever I have to straighten them out every time I pull a book out or put one back in. Just my OCD I guess. I did think perhaps I could have smaller filler boxes to go behind those books so that I can push them back to a point and not worry about straightening books out. That way I have the flexibility of having those really deep shelves should I need it. I dunno. We'll see.

[Legion564]

I also have a question for you guys. I noticed that you don't bag your trades in your collection. Is there a reason you don't bag them? Just wondering because I have most of mine bagged. Thought it would protect them better, but if you guys don't think bagging them matters, then I'll take them out of the bags and it will probably give me more room that I need.

I put mylar sheets on my dust jackets. I don't collect any tpb so there's no reason to bag anything.

[The Whovian]

I put mylar sheets on my dust jackets. I don't collect any tpb so there's no reason to bag anything.

Thanks for the info

[danmar85]

Good points. Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I thought about just not pushing them all the way back, but whenever I've done that in the past, it irks me whenever I have to straighten them out every time I pull a book out or put one back in. Just my OCD I guess. I did think perhaps I could have smaller filler boxes to go behind those books so that I can push them back to a point and not worry about straightening books out. That way I have the flexibility of having those really deep shelves should I need it. I dunno. We'll see.

Hey pud333. Am I mistaken in remembering that you had asked about built-ins awhile back? If you are, glad to see the project moving along. In regard to your question; If you're worried about having your books lined up without having to manually do it each time, you could buy some board from somewhere like Home Depot in the width you like--maybe 1x6"--and cut it the length of your deep shelves. This should create a natural stopper at a depth you want to match the rest of your shelving that sits below the ledge. Just prep and finish (prime/paint/seal) it in the same manner as the rest of the shelving.


A few things to consider before going further.

1) Is there any reason that you shouldn't block off the foundation wall? Some type of building code or unforeseen need to access it?

2) What type of finish will you put on it? Keep in mind that some paints, especially cheaper latex paint that's glossy can leave a tacky texture to the shelving. Sometimes it fully cures and hardens and sometimes not. Using a flat/matte sheen might eliminate that issue or go with something in the price range of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic. I've read recommendations based on it's hardening effect when it's cured. You can buy the acrylic version, which is purely water based. This is just an example so you should do your own research on this.

3) Consider also, the acidic nature of wood. All wood species release tannic acid that can be harmful to books. I've been doing research on this myself and it's a real rabbit hole if you're OCD'ish about it. I'm in the midst of building my own bookcases so it's been a bit of a pain finding information about tannic acid and long term damage issues. I haven't had any luck seeing examples of it on books or how long it actually takes to see damage. People have been building shelves for decades and I think the only real concern is for those looking to preserve precious, old or collectible items for and after their lifetime. Otherwise, books will just age and erode like normal. If you're curious about this you can google "storing books on wood shelf acid". A few articles pop up in regard to this issue. Best solutions are metal shelves with power coated enamel, which is more expensive and not appealing for many. Otherwise try to find a wood that releases less tannic acid and seal it best you can. There are proper sealers that are mentioned, but I won't list them because of lack of research. Plenty of primer, paint and a type of sealer will probably give you the best solution within a normal budget. I'm buying some simple boards from the Home Depot and from what I've read Poplar seems to be a good choice. You can also buy a few archival grade liners for your books to sit on if you so please.

Again...this is a rabbit hole if you choose to jump in.



Good luck.

[krylox]

ok, now it's my turn. here we go...

this is my home office, also known as "the comic room". superhero and genre stuff is all here...



the whole thing.



omnibi and absolutes + some short boxes with my floppies. used to be way more, but they're getting less since i'm almost exclusively into collections nowadays.



marvel (left) and dc/vertigo (right)

[krylox]

marvel (left) and dc/vertigo (right). also my main collection of marvel floppies (i still buy old ff, avengers and x-men, which were my fav comics when i was a kid)



indie and image shelves.



humanoids, some manga and dark horse. and my x-men floppies.

[krylox]

my living room. rather dark this time of the day.



always having the stuff i'm currently reading on the living room table. plus the dc taschen book on permanent display, mainly because it doesn't fit into any of the shelves.



i always wanted to mix all my books and my comics into one big shelf. turns out, even in the new flat and with the new shelf, it's just not possible, they are way too many. so i moved the graphic novels section into the living room and the genre stuff stayed, mostly for my eyes only, in my office room.