However, avoid bathrooms, laundry rooms, or spots that get lots of sun. If you like solitude, you may want to create a library that's a haven and a retreat. Designing your library The storage space across the top of the doorway creates a kind of triumphal arch for books and is accessible by a rolling ladder. Match and extend any existing baseboard or cornice around the tops and bottoms of the new shelving. Add an attractive wood library ladder to help you reach books on the top shelves.
Shelves can take many forms.
San Francisco designer Mark Desplaines created a hinged bookcase that doubles as a screen, which is available from Arkitektura In Situ in San Francisco. Flexible shelving allows you to store books of different heights or to reconfigure when your book collection changes. This type of shelving usually employs movable brackets that fit into slots on metal strips or into rows of equally spaced holes, on the side and back panels of the shelving units. For sturdiness, shelves should be no more than 30 inches long and 12 inches deep. Large heavy books should be placed on the stationary bottom shelf.