White Billy Bookcases - too studenty or could be stylish?

[Sourcherriesarebest]

Hi all,

We have been flipping our way through a series of houses (over fifteen years), all proper reno jobs. Are finally in final destination house, also fully renovated so we are skint.

We finally have an office - I have a lot of books because of my job and also am a keen reader. Happy (indeed keen) to have office look a bit library like.

Only thing is we are too skint for lovely built ins or high end shelves. We also have so many other things to spend money on. I am keen to bite the bullet and just buy white billys from ikea with the extension bits up top and build round corner. They'll be on wooden floor and nicely made and fitted together and attached to wall.

I think they will look fine for right now and cost £300 (still loads). DH worries they will look a bit studenty? (We are not snobby at all and a lot of our stuff has come from and gone to second hand furniture shops).

If ever I had money again (ha!) in a few years I might invest in nice joiner built ones, but then I would just reuse what I could in kid's rooms or donate in excellent condition to local very busy second hand charity shop.

I just can't stand living out of boxes any more! I need my books out! (I actually feel quite emotional about it - it's six years since I last unpacked properly).

Do you think a wall of billy bookcases in basic white can look nice and classy or am i kidding myself here?

I have many Billys (oak) and i think they look great. I would love some fancy antique shelves but Billy’s do the job while I’m waiting to win the lotto. I have some white ikea kallaxes and wardrobes too and I think they all look nice and streamlined.

We have some with the glass doors and they look really nice!

It doesn’t matter once the books are in

I think it completely depends on what you have on said bookcases! A series of naff vases and ornaments - tacky. A proper library of books - classy!
Two artist friends of mine have built their own house. it's beautiful, and they have Billy bookcases. But I had to be told that's what they were because they looked so good

I think they can look fine actually, particularly a set of them that are built and kept in place, rather then being moved from house to house. We've got 4 of the tall narrow ones next to one another in the spare room.

I think it can look fine, but also if you've got any DIY skills at all you can make them look a lot better than fine by building in the carcasses - if you look on instagram at the hashtag #ikeahack or similar, you'll see that hundreds of people have done something similar and made it look really good!

one of my walls of Billy

I think they are fine as long as full of books. The bit that makes them look flat pack is you can see all the pre-drilled holes if the shelves are empty.
I have them and like them.

I've got white Billys and I think they are fine in an office. Maybe not in a living room but absolutely fine for an office. The only thing id say is the white ones maybe go a bit yellowy after a few years and the birth ones maybe last a bit longer.

birch not birth

I had white billy bookcases in my first flat - had the doors on the bottom and some exposed shelves, some glass doors on top. I thought they looked good. Admittedly I was a student at the time! I think they’d be fine for an office especially if filled with books.

I made my Billys look built in by doing a bit of DIY. I bought extenders for the top, then cornicing which I glued to the top and the ceiling. I used plywood to cover the gaps and painted it all the same colour as the wall, and I lined the back of the shelves with a subtle wallpaper which you can just see behind the books. Honestly people thought I had built in shelves.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=-oDeTqaoDNQ

Of you're quite handy you can DIY Billy's into quite fancy looking faux built ins. I've seen some great ones!

Some inspo?

There are a million and one Billy makeover videos online, with ideas on how to build them in for a more expensive look.

Our house is full of Billys, some of them donkey's years old. They are good value, don't sag and I don't think they look studenty. Ours are straight out of the box with no mods. We have white ones and birch ones.

For example.

We've had these in our sitting room for ages and I do think they're too studenty. They're so versatile though! We keep talking about replacing them with nice oak book cases but it's finding ones with shelves you can adjust... We also keep talking about having something built into the alcoves like @Beetlebuggy's picture.

Maybe we should just paint the Billies!

You can make them look like built ins, just google for a tutorial

I think they look OK if they’re neatly aligned and well “dressed”.

That said, they don’t last forever and are hard to paint. How about the Hemnes range instead? I bought several of these on Gumtree/Facebook marketplace very cheaply, painted them (real wood so easy to paint) and they look fantastic.

I think they will look fine for right now and cost £300 (still loads).
I have seen many a Billy given away for nowt on Freecycle. You don't even have to wait for an 'offer', you can put in a 'wanted' request.

I like them. You can make them look more high end by sticking trim on the top and bottom and over the joints where they sit together. I'm not explaining it well but just you tube billy ikea hacks and there will
Be loads of tutorials on how.

Actually, it's not just Billys on Freecycle. Lots of people have got rid of their books (in favour of Kindle etc) so then they get rid of their bookcases, too. There are all sorts out there.

I think they can be fine. Depends on the rest of the decor. We have c.9 very similar white bookcases in our period house.

These aren't actually Billy but are very similar. I think they look OK, apart possibly from the fact I have more books than space...

These are ours and I really like them!

The key to making it look classy is to adjust the shelf heights. I have six in a row and it looks great, people are always surprised it’s ikea