The uniform nature of the billy meant that we could do this.
How to make billy bookcase sturdy. But we knew we wanted to add library lights to the top of each shelf. As for solid wood bookcases you do quite a few choices though colour wise you re not so lucky. Prime and paint the bookshelves. It evolved into the kallax in 2014.
We bought some used billy bookshelves off of craigslist. The norrebo pic in solid birch is a modular shelving system that lets you cover as much space as you want but the colour is not a great match. Before you start nailing get your billy nice and square and be sure you have plenty of appropriately sized nails along the top into the middle permanent shelf and along the bottom. Place the flimsy backing piece back on your bookcase as directed but use more nails hammered more closely together.
I attached the 2 4 to the wall behind the bookcase by driving 2 5 nails into wall studs and then attached the 2 4 to the side piece using 1 pocket hole nails. Assemble the billy bookcases. This room is not tall about 6 5 ft. We had a billy bookcase in my girls room when they were young and they completely destroyed it by forcing too many books onto each shelf.
This is a bit more involved than just slapping paint on a piece of primed wood. Now that the base is complete and in place flip the billy bookcases upside down and position them on top of the base matching up the verticals. The billy also lacks the vertical bracing of the expedit and kallax so it holds more items per square foot. The side wasn t super sturdy at this point so i cut a piece of scrap 2 4 to the width of the billy bookcase and used the kreg jig again to drill two pocket holes in both end of the 2 4.
By installing them upside down we had room for lights and crown moulding. The particleboard bookcases such as the billy or bonde system tend to sag under weight. However the billy bookcase s additional height makes a lot of difference. They were both under 6 so it s not like they were uber strong and were really cramming the books in there.
Plus the billy is easy to customize to fit space requirements. Just a little wood glue and they are good as new.