lccarson's Profile

I use stacks as bookends.

Such angst from a tribe that is generally enthusiastic about the ultimate stack, the Sapien Bookcase!

It's clear from comments here (and in threads on purging/hording books) that AT folks have conflicting models about what books are for. We are united, however, in our snobbishness about how Those Other People Do It All Wrong. Do we really expect one-size-fits-all solutions? Can we, instead, take it as given that collectible and antique books need better preservation and care than popular fiction, coffee table books and working cookbooks? Let's acknowledge that the Books-As-Consumables folks need convenient parking space for temporary tenants more than permanent storage, while the Books-Are-Beautiful people are reconciled to dusting, or dust, just like the plant people and china collectors. Before the Sort-By-Subject folks demand satisfaction at dawn from the Sort-By-Size and Sort-By-Colour crews, let's recognize that ordering serves retrieval. If the writer needs to search by author but the artist remembers the font on the spine, we're going to benefit from different sorting styles.

The real culprit in all these photographs is not the bibliophile or clutterbug. Blame the stylists. These ideas aren't bad. They're just "drawn that way" (as Jessica Rabbit would say). In the real world, the first time I left the room, my friend Sherrie would turn all those books around so she could browse the titles; the 'cool things to do in this neighbourhood' books would migrate to the bedside table in the guest bedroom; and, every floor stack would be grounded on old phone books so the house rabbit would have something disposable to chew on.

As for accessing stacked books, it's the same as organizing anything else: the most frequently used books need to be easy to get to and the dangerous books need to be secured. My working thesaurus is always on top but, since the advent of spellcheckers and online dictionaries, my big dictionary has migrated to the bottom of the stack. My journals are in a filing cabinet and the 'how to draw the nude' texts are on a shelf above kiddie height.

Styling: why there's a pair of shoes in the foreground of so many decor mag shots. As in http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/011609RajivHouseTour/03

I'd call it an oil lamp rather than a candle, and no more dangerous than any other open flame. Lovely idea.

Now this is a game I love. My favourite soap dish is a ceramic souvenir ashtray of a lake with a leaping let's-say-trout. The bench by the tub is a reclaimed maple plank on steel pipe legs. My cookbook shelf is a beautiful battered wooden ironing board. My pride and joy? I store my drawing pencils in classic diner-style straw dispensers.

Hate to disagree with so many folks, but I already voted with my renovation dollars on this. One big happy room including clawfoot tub and bed. A big room with lots of air movement and an exhaust fan. My showers are apparently short, not steamy, and if I splash water on the floor it's no more of a problem in a big room than a small one.

Different priorities--I want to be able to soak in the tub in front of a sunny window, reading a book, nursing a glass of single malt Scotch. For that I need space. As for privacy, mine isn't a family home or shared with roomies. I hope any guest in my bedroom is someone I'd be prepared to bathe with.

Elegantly designed for the lives of the people who live there. Nice indeed. But I really wanted to respond to the several "why the cat video?" comments . . . If you look back at the original entry and its comments, and you look at the comments here, a couple of themes emerge:

1. The photographs do an outstanding job of describing the space already. (So what could a video add?)
2. The plans explain the loft construction very clearly. (So what could a video add?)
3. But people really wanted to know how the space, especially the loft, worked for the cat. (So what could a video add? Well, it could show us how the loft design works well for all the residents, by showing how the cat copes with the ladder.)

So kudos for the cat video. And congratulations on the win!

I use a simple steel angle bracket, nothing fancy. (This is a flat piece of steel about 3/4" wide that's folded into an L shape and has pre-drilled holes for screwing through both arms. If you spend more than a dollar apiece, you're buying 'shelf brackets' or 'handrail brackets' or some other upmarket specialty product instead of a no-nonsense angle bracket. Examples here http://www.sugatsune.com/products/productss.cfm?CATID=9&SUBCATID=1.)

Locate a stud anywhere across the width of the unit and mount the L to the top shelf (on the top or the underside, whichever is least conspicuous) to line up with the stud. An L-bracket with sides two to three inches long gives you some flexibility about how far the shelf unit needs to sit out from the wall (to level it, to clear the baseboard, etc.). And installing it on the shelf (rather than the uprights) means you aren't limited to aligning an upright with a wall stud.

And, of course, you'll use whatever fastener is most appropriate for your wall construction--there's no safety factor in affixing the shelf to the wall if the fastener doesn't hold.