Good sturdy and basic shelves (Ikea Billy Bookcases)

Member Name: GizmoPig

Product:	Ikea Billy Bookcases
Date:	11/06/09 (245 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice colour, can buy other items in the same finish, shelves can be made up to your own requirements

Disadvantages: Not much character,very basic

We've got two of these bookcases that we've had for 4 years now. We bought them when we moved into our first flat and needed to buy some bookcases that were cheap and functional but would fit into our very small studio flat.

We found the following things about the bookcases were brilliant:

They are plain which means they go with everything. Also Ikea do a whole range in the same shade of beech laminate, so even 4 years on we are able to go into Ikea and find more furniture that matches. Everything in our flat now is Ikea beech.The colour is great as it is light and doesn't have a cheap laminate look to it - it comes across as more of a lightly finished wood. The shelves are adjustable which means that you can fit the shelves in at any height. Rather than having say 6 shelves of the same height you can put in as many or few as you want so you can build you own individual 'storage system' rather than having to fit your stuff into the pre-designed space. They are really easy to put together and fairly easy to transport. Our old flat was up 3 flights of stairs with no room to swing packages round the angles of the stairs and we got them up the stairs in a flat pack no problem. What was really impressive is that they were light enough and compact enough to get them back down again fully made up when we moved! They are also strong - I have one shelf full of A4 sized hardback books and there is no buckling or bending on the shelf.

Would recommend these for anyone - they were cheap but good value for money and have lasted really well. I've got no desire to change them as they are so basic that if we decorate they will still fit into the new decoration.

Summary: Really good as a first piece of furniture or if you don't have much to spend