I want Built-in Bookcases

When we started to furnish our new house over two years ago, I needed a quick and cheap fix to house all my husband's books. It never ceases to amaze me how much Mike reads and how much he treasures his books. I don't think he would ever become an e-book kind of guy. So on one of our all-day trips to IKEA we bought two white Billy bookcases.



This is from this past Christmas.

As much as these bookshelves serve their purpose, I'd like to see something more substantial. The latest idea floating around in my head is to keep that back wall blue so that the blue shows behind the shelves if we build these new shelves and then paint the rest of the room a warm neutral color. I've used Behr's "Roman Plaster" in our upstairs and downstairs hallways, so I can see this color coming into the living room. A second idea would be to reuse these Billy Bookcases and figure out a way to make them feel built-in like what Censational Girl did in her home.

Honestly, I'm leaning towards creating all new built-in bookshelves ourselves. We need a new DIY project once we come back from Paris in a few weeks. So do you have any built-in bookcases in your home? send me your photos!