Space between bookcases or no?

amother

Ivory

Mon, Jul 11 2016, 4:57 am

We just moved into a rental we hope to be in for a few years and I'm busy figuring out where to place all the furniture. Most of it I figure I can move around easily if I decide I don't like where I put it, but I need to bolt bookcases and bedroom closets to the wall so my toddler can't topple them (also in case of earthquake- we're on a major faultline).

The baseboard comes a couple of inches up the wall, so there's automatically a gap in between the bookcase/closet and the wall. We bolted one of the closets to the wall yesterday and left a roughly 4" gap between the side of the closet and the second wall- I'm figuring with the baseboard gap, something's going to fall in there at some point and I want to be able to reach in with a hand or a broom.

The question now is where to place the second closet- they both have straight sides, so they could be right up against each other, but I'm reluctant to underestimate children's ability to wedge things into places you thought were too small. Also, we know what we're doing with the drill, but just in case maybe a few inches wiggle room would make it easier to get the closet lined up with the wall, which is more important. On the other hand, is this weird aesthetically? And if I use the top of the closets for storage (mostly sleeping bags and similarly sized things), how bad is losing the continuity of the top surfaces?

Same issue with two bookcases in the living/dining room, only there they won't be in a corner. I can't put them too far apart because there's no other wall to put them on between the wall air conditioner and windows- I have maybe 10"-12" extra space to play with on their wall. Like the closets, they're different heights, though I'm less likely to use the tops for storage.