A mid point between a Billy bookcase and spending £££££

[Kayemm]

We're having an extension and will have a wall in the dining room that we need/want built in cupboards and shelves.

There seems to be no mid point.

We've contacted a joiner and he would only fit what someone else had designed and supplied.

Dh keeps looking at the amazing makeovers of IKEA Billy and saying we can do it but we are not practical people and I'm really unsure about tryng.

Look on eBay for Nathan furniture, it's like Gplan, mid century. Teak! Very solid, cheap will last for forever. You can paint bits of it, have a look on Pinterest.
Why I say Nathan is that it is a 'system' and you can fill a whole wall with it

Some options - try another joiner, some will definitely build bespoke. You might be lucky and billy or kallax fit your space - I have a few kallax side by side across a wall. Jysk also do cheap bookcases, might fit. At the £££ end, string shelving is modular and beautiful, la redoute have modular options, and ladderax on eBay is nice but way more pricey than Nathan.

I'd go for the Billy hacks: you can do so much with them!

Go for the Billy hack if it fits the space. We bought three white bookcases leaving a gap at one end. We added mouldings, painted in white eggshell, on the shelf edges and vertically between and either end. There’s skirting on the bottom and crown moulding (polystyrene) at the top, also in white eggshell. The mouldings were glued with gripfil and any gaps caulked and painted. Bigger gaps were filled with wood strips.

The hardest part is mitring, mostly done by hand sawing. We added picture lights with an extra panel of wood at the top, we just need an electrician to wire them in. Everything was bought from B&Q/Wickes/Toolstation type places. We’re not very skilled, reasonable DIYers who will have a go. Once the books etc were added it looked amazing and really bespoke. Cost was a few hundred, maybe £300-£400ish, last year.

The key thing is planning and measuring, and then finding the mouldings to fit your design. Keep measuring as you go, before you cut, then paint before you stick it on.

We used this as a rough guide https://remingtonavenue.com/ikea-billy-bookcase-library-hack.html

Find a better carpenter!

We’ve used a joiner before. He designed, made and fitted a cupboard, shelves, cornicing etc to fit into an alcove. I basically described what I wanted and he (roughly) free it out for me to approve. All made out of mdf, which I was unsure about at the time, but turned out fine, and then painted.

it’s the only time I’ve ever used a joiner, but I think that’s pretty standard.

Just keep looking, a decent joiner will make you something cool.

I would either find a better carpenter who is prepared to fit something bespoke or see if you can find a local handyman who would be willing to fit Billies with a 'hack'.

Make the design yourself, based on Pinterest etc, and get another joiner to do it. You can source any skirting, architrave and cornice you like, together with any mdf sheets and carcassing timber from the Internet and give it to your joiner. Most will be happy to build what you specify and supply.

Thanks all.

We've also been looking at Ikea Besta which may be a solution

It depends on your space and what you want but we have previously used an IKEA Hemnes combination across a whole wall which looked great as it is solid pine.

we had a joiner do a Billy bookcase hack once - all properly fitted to the wall & looked good.

Have a look at IKEA Havsta hacks. It’s real wood, so paints easier than Billy. And has a higher end look.

Try a different joiner. Loads of joiners will quite happily modify a billy bookcase for you and most of them IME will be quite capable of building you something themselves. If someone can’t or won’t do that and just assemble flat pack furniture, they’re not really a joiner. They’re a pretty basic ‘handyman’ (because plenty of people who call themselves that will modify your billy too!) who wants to wildly overcharge you.

There are online companies which will make bespoke cabinets. They are not as cheap as Billy, but not ridiculously pricey for bespoke. This is one example. Jali is another. https://thecabinetshop.co.uk/collections/bookcases That said, I got a local joiner to create custom bookshelves and cabinets either side of a chimney for what I thought was a very decent price.

I love watching the Ikea TikToks where people transform their Billy bookcases into something bespoke. One day I'll fool myself into thinking I could do it too!

This! I have a wall of Havstas in the study and it looks great and dare I say - expensive 😊

I have a row of Hemnes cabinets in my study - as they fitted the wall better than Havsta. Got them all really cheap on Facebook marketplace (different colours but didn’t matter), painted them and put a bit of trim around - they look fantastic and cost me maybe £300 for 3.7m of shelving and drawers.