Question on sizing the Monticello bookcase boxes

[Thomas Crawford]

Checked and our books seem to work well with the dimensions from the article. Guess they haven’t strayed too much from the 19th century dimensions for the most part. Still, looking at the 4 full height cases in our house that are all double layered and then some, I wouldn’t guarantee that isn’t an odd ball here or there.

I found a copy of the article that I had saved a few years ago. The wife just put "more bookcases" at the top of my build list and I might give these a go. I'm thinking the middle set can be a little deeper without messing with the look too much. Depends on how much of a shelf you want. In our case it will probably just accumulate more books.

[Tony Wilkins]

I found a copy of the article that I had saved a few years ago. The wife just put "more bookcases" at the top of my build list and I might give these a go. I'm thinking the middle set can be a little deeper without messing with the look too much. Depends on how much of a shelf you want. In our case it will probably just accumulate more books.

My wife noticed today and liked that ‘shelf’.

[Jim McCue]

In one of Chris Schwarz books he has bookcase plans and discusses the sizes of books and spacings of shelves.

Found an excerpt on his blog:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2016/1...ded-bookshelf/

[Tony Wilkins]

Thanks. I have that book and had thought about looking but hadn’t done it yet. The heights are very similar to the Monticello plans.

[Tom M King]

Whatever size you make them, something won't be right, and you'll have to lay some books on their sides. Just a universal law of bookcases.

[Jake Rothermel]

For what it's worth: I'm building built-ins for our house soon and so I've gone on a rampage measuring every book my family owns and researching publisher sizes. In our house, we have everything from antique bindings, to children's books, to paperback novels, to coffee table books. I can't claim we have EVERY type & size of bound book out there, of course, but we've quite a range and it seems like anything smaller than 17th century "folio" sizes (15" or taller) will be an issue.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but the tallest I'm making my built-ins is 13" tall x 12" deep. The tiny handful of taller books can just get laid on their sides and I don't believe anything will protrude past the edge of a shelf more than perhaps a half an inch if at all.

Good luck with your build!

-jake

[Richard Verwoest]

I built the bookcase a few years back. My favorite project to date. The size, history, dovetails and the use of a moulding plane, and all the hand beading on the back slats. I used Alder and finished with super blonde shellac.....I don't recall but I think I resized the mid-range boxes a little. But I kept the proportions the same, so when looking from the end, all the dovetails mirrored each other. If I recall, my biggest book is the Rubio Book of Plates. And the smallest would most likely be one of the "pocket" books from LAP. There are a few different was to cut the mitred dovetail on the front. Like the way described in the article, and a recent description here on the creek.

[Tony Wilkins]

I built the bookcase a few years back. My favorite project to date. The size, history, dovetails and the use of a moulding plane, and all the hand beading on the back slats. I used Alder and finished with super blonde shellac.....I don't recall but I think I resized the mid-range boxes a little. But I kept the proportions the same, so when looking from the end, all the dovetails mirrored each other. If I recall, my biggest book is the Rubio Book of Plates. And the smallest would most likely be one of the "pocket" books from LAP. There are a few different was to cut the mitred dovetail on the front. Like the way described in the article, and a recent description here on the creek.

Glad to hear it’s an enjoyable project. I still haven’t decided on the mitered edge dovetails but leaning towards doing them. Best video I found so far was Rob Cosman’s on it.

[Mark Maleski]

Whatever size you make them, something won't be right, and you'll have to lay some books on their sides. Just a universal law of bookcases.

IIRC some larger/thicker books are best stored lying down. When upright, the weight of the pages stresses the binding. I have a bunch of books that I store this way on purpose for that reason.

FWIW, I’ve just started building bookcases with some ideas from that PW article. Have been reaching many of the same conclusions as the OP, but glad to see this post.