Billy Bookcase

[elaine1975]

Does anyone have an idea how many standard paperbacks an Ikea Billy Bookcase will hold? I'm talking about the standard 5-shelf single bookcase. Got around 400 books and need to know how many of the cases I'll need.

[carrot99]

how wide is a Billy Bookcase shelf - inches or centimetres is fine?

[heathfield]

There's no standard for the width of a paperback - it depends on paper thickness and number of pages. The Billy system comes in two widths, 40cm and 80cm. These are the outside dimensions and you'll have to subtract the width of both uprights (i.e. 2x16mm) to get the shelf length. Then, it's a case of measuring the total width of all your books divided by the total of all the shelf lengths to get the answer you need. But remember that there are actually 6 shelves, since the bottom of the unit counts as one.

[carrot99]

and you could even use the top with a couple of bookends

[vulcan]

have just measured 40 paperbacks,various thicknesses. this comes to 32 inches so 400 books roughly 320 inches or 27 feet of shelving.

[elaine1975]

Thanks, vulcan42 and heathfield - exactly what I needed :)

[bednobs]

it also depends on if you want to see them all - my billy bookcase has enough room for two rows of paperbacks on each shelf