Saturday, November 3, 2012

EKG Bookshelf

The big summer project was finished- sorta. We did finish painting the front and back of the house, and replaced some rotted siding that was a consequence of the suboptimal previous roof structure. Some portions of the exterior still need a new coat of paint, but after mid October it's past the time for exterior painting in Oregon. Also, it's a good excuse to do something that's- to be direct- a lot more fun.  The library still could use more bookshelves. The ledge under the transom windows was easily modified to serve as another shelf area along with serving as an anchor for another ladder rail. The ladder is sufficiently light to move to the opposite wall when necessary
I had seen a metal EKG shaped bookshelf in a book and then seen it again somewhere on-line. None available for purchase, however. So something along those lines at the top shelf for the back wall would be a nice variation from the lower bookshelves.
As I began to sketch it out, the focus drifted from a nice little shelf made of wood rather than metal to an accurately scaled representation (hard to compartmentalize OCD). What I wound up with was way too big- it's about 12 ft long- for the space originally intended. Luckily for me, 1) the dimensions were just right for the area above the clerestory window and 2) I have a wife who humors me.

I shared her concern, though, that I was risking cluttering up the room and offered to put the shelf up in my shop; she kindly declined that option. We both like the spareness of the room as shown in the previous post. At the same time, the books were all crammed together; now, there's more breathing room on the shelves (and another one is on the way). It's also good to have another area where the ladder is needed.