Good place to buy book shelves?

[StellaBlue]

I need, say, one six-foot-tall, standard size book shelf for my collection. Needs to match my 1930s/Zen bedroom.

Target?

No IKEA near me.

[taterguy]

1. Road trip

The Ikea experience is worth it, no matter how far you have to go

[edwin]

7. The meatballs alone are worth a multi-day trip! n/t

[taterguy]

2. Or Habitat Restore

If you'd like to shop and contribute to a worthy cause

[crispini]

3. Container Store.

Nice wood Skandia... Mmmmm.

[StellaBlue]

4. how expensive is the Container Store?

Haven't been there in about seven years. I was looking to spend no more than about $100, less preferably, unless I find something really nice-looking.

[crispini]

5. Kinda depends on how much you buy.

Skandia is component based stuff. It's not dirt cheap. But if you move you can always reconfigure it. And it looks SO nice.

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/index.jhtml?CATID=13372

The Elfa is cheaper, but if you're going to put up white wires shelves I'd just go to Home Depot, which is rockbottom.

[kay1864]

6. We bought a decent one at Target

Cherry finish, $29 on sale, but it doesn't look like the usual cheap laminate. Good enough for the home office. It's on the Target website if you want to take a look. But for the bedroom we went with Ikea--simple but elegant.

[Bossy Monkey]

8. eBay or thrift stores

Target and K-Mart mainly have those Sauder shelves you put together yourself. They're OK as utility shelves, but not really strong enough for books. (I've bought several sets.) I'm having trouble visualizing a 1930s/Zen bedroom, but I'm not sure how much IKEA stuff would help. Regardless, they have a web presence; worldwide shipping I'm pretty sure: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/ Anna the imaginary IKEA associate (really, I wish I were making this stuff up) indicates that each store does the shipping, which might run into some money. Still, Dallas is closer than Sweden, so maybe not.
Or if you're just incredibly loaded, there are these guys: http://www.decodame.com/decofurniture/fadc45.htm

[noonwitch]

11. I have a bunch of those Sauder cases, they do tend to bend after a decade

I'm going to have to buy some book shelves made of real wood one of these days.

[LouisianaLiberal]

9. Must be synchronicity. I was looking for bookshelves yesterday

AND my bedroom is 1930s Zen - well, sort of. Chinese wallpaper, 1930s furniture, and buddhist sculptures. I was looking for a full-wall dark wood shelf for the living room and found just what I was looking for - but it had just been sold the day before, and they didn't expect any like it for another year.

Good, solid bookshelves are hard to find, at least here. Before buying this house in BR my 1850's apartment in New Orleans had bookshelves on almost every wall, and I now have two closets of books left with nowhere to put them. I ordered some from another local store, and when they arrived, it turned out they were made from old growth wood from Malaysia, which I was trying to avoid.

If price is an issue, Office Depot and Office Max have book shelves that are inexpensive and don't look like office furniture. You can go to an unfinished furniture store and finish it yourself. Big selection, but the prices aren't much lower than finished furniture. You can order IKEA furniture online, but there is a big IKEA store in Houston off I-10.

[Shakespeare]

10. Aw, you're KINDA close to an IKEA....

Drive to Houston! Their BILLY bookcases cannot be beat. Beautiful wood veneer, and I think the tall ones are just $79. I've got 8-9 of them (I like the zen/scandinavian pale birch veneer), and they hold up wonderfully.