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Please help me find the right thing at the right price!



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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 12:50 am
I've been searching online for days and even took a real live trip to a home improvement store and still can't find something right for me. I thought it would be so simple.

We recently moved into an apartment where the kitchen is a decent size but not set up so great. There are two main things I think would be really helpful to get more mileage out of the space. We do not plan to live here long (less than 2 years for sure) so don't want to invest too much into making it over. Would be willing to invest slightly more in items that could be useful in future moves but definitely not, say, cabinetry because you never know what we'll move into next. So here's what I want but can't seem to find:

1) Shelves for a deep, skinny broom closet. I'd be fine with a cheap plastic freestanding shelf unit like this http://www.amazon.com/Sterilit.....MIL66 but they don't seem to come in skinny. The closet is about 16" wide but the door is only 11". The closest possibility I have found so far is this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....29090 which is decent enough but plastic would be so much cheaper... Hiring a carpenter to put shelves right into the closet would be too expensive to be worth it for something we aren't going to be able to keep anyway.

2) A counter with cabinets underneath, possibly eat-on-able. We have a 5-foot wall space perfect for this. I'm thinking a shallow cabinet with a full size countertop so you can eat at the counter, but would settle for a regular counter/cabinet. Not looking for something custom installed. Preferably not too expensive because chances are it won't fit into whatever home we move into next. I checked Ikea website but they only have things with legs which doesn't appeal to me. I'm visualizing toys and gunk getting stuck under there. Prefer flush against floor.

3) I know I said I had 2 wishes but that was kitchen, sorry. I also need something for DH's seforim. This I'm willing to invest more if I have to, to get a piece worth moving with us throughout the future. Must be strong enough to hold big heavy gemaras and such, preferably adjustable shelves but if not they must be tall enough for large size gemaras et al, and preferably with doors - I like top and bottom doors to protect from dust/humidity, but minimum requirement is bottom doors to facilitate babyproofing.

Thanks in advance! I don't know why I thought this would be so easy, and turns out to be impossible. Maybe I just don't know how to look...
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mommyofnineka




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 3:49 am
I am not sure where you live and what your budget is, but have you tried IKEA?
The other bits of advice I would give you is that if you have wall space, to invest in a meter of plain upper cabinets. We did this for a kitchen and when we moved, we put themin our children's room for outgrown clothes storage and when we moved again, we used it in a spare room for our Pesach things.
The other idea I have is to measure the space you have for shelves and go to a lumberyard (or call a carpenter) and have the shelves made for you.SHelves cost a lot less than an entire cabinet.
In terms of book shelves, I would tell you that it is more versitile to buy several smaller bookshelves rather that one big unit. SInce you don't know where you are going to live next, it is much easier to fit in a few free standing bookshelves rather than one larger one. Again Ikea is good for this. They have lots to choose from for every budget. We bought several for less than $100 ea and even though they aren't the best quality for the past 3 years, the shelves have been fine for sefarim. You can also always buy extra shelves because if you double the shelves, they are stronger.
Good luck!
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 11:12 am
Thanks for the advice, mommyofsix!

Yes, Ikea was the first thing I checked. I did their website, maybe their store has better selection? Because I was NOT impressed. If I find the time I could get to a store easily enough but I looked online first to see if there was anything worth going for...

Upper cabinets are a fine idea but what I really need is counter space. I guess I could always get a little table and upper cabinets, but it just seemed more practical to get a cabinet/countertop combo.

And about carpenter making shelves (for the closet) the carpenter around here who is supposedly not expensive is still about 3x the price of a freestanding shelf unit, which is already more than I'd hoped it would be. About shelves instead of cabinets, cabinets are neater and keep the things inside them cleaner.
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YTYoungMother




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 1:49 pm
For bookcase:
We got this bookcase for my husband's gemaras and seforim. It was the only solid wood bookcase from Ikea that we liked, and we hope to move with it. We put the gemaras on the second to bottom shelf, and left the bottom shelf empty for dd's toys. Note, this bookcase needs to be strapped to a wall to secure it (comes with strap, etc)
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....76264

For kitchen closet:
I agree with mommyofsix that making your own shelves is a really good option because it's very cheap, fairly easy, and will be customized to your cabinet's size. Do you or dh know how to use a drill? If yes, you should be fine installing them on your own. You can buy a few 16" slabs of wood. Then, screw a small block of wood onto each side of the cabinet and lay a slab of wood across them. This is a very secure and easy way to install shelves.

For the kitchen storage:
I don't have much experience there, but Ikea should have some options of cabinets and counters to go on top. I can do some more research if you'd like.
If you have any extra wallspace, you can always put up open shelves on the wall for storage. I've done this in several places in my tiny apartment - we bought a slab of white formica from Home Depot and 2 large brackets, and put up a shelf. Then I bought these boxes to store stuff on the shelves. I use it for my maternity clothes and dd's clothes. You'd be surprised, but the color white makes a huge difference, because it blends into the wall, and doesnt make the room feel stuffy.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....86395
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YTYoungMother




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 1:52 pm
Here's a DIY guide to closet shelves:
http://www.extremehowto.com/xh.....60357
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 2:38 pm
None of the Ikea bookshelves have doors... maybe we'll just have to settle on that. But I'd prefer to go elsewhere if I can get what I really want for that since it's a long-term thing.

Ikea's cabinets all have feet. I'm not being too picky about anything else because the kitchen is ugly enough and not a long-term thing anyway, but I just hate the feet. They look ugly to me and I just know DD is going to lose everything we own under there.

I'm warming up to the idea of putting in my own shelves though it sounds like quite a bit of work... I'm sure I could figure out the drilling, but I don't know how much time I'm going to have to put in it and the closet is so skinny, it'll be hard to maneuver in there. Thanks for the DIY link, will have to research... I was really hoping for something easy like those sterilite shelves but I only see them in long, doesn't ANYONE sell skinny plastic shelves?!
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Tova




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 2:47 pm
You can buy glass doors for IKEA's Billy bookcases. They are long top-to-bottom doors (not just for bottom shelf, etc.) My sister has this across several bookcases and it looks like a pricey furnished library - she always gets compliments.
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Barbara




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 3:09 pm
seeker wrote:
I've been searching online for days and even took a real live trip to a home improvement store and still can't find something right for me. I thought it would be so simple.

We recently moved into an apartment where the kitchen is a decent size but not set up so great. There are two main things I think would be really helpful to get more mileage out of the space. We do not plan to live here long (less than 2 years for sure) so don't want to invest too much into making it over. Would be willing to invest slightly more in items that could be useful in future moves but definitely not, say, cabinetry because you never know what we'll move into next. So here's what I want but can't seem to find:

1) Shelves for a deep, skinny broom closet. I'd be fine with a cheap plastic freestanding shelf unit like this http://www.amazon.com/Sterilit.....MIL66 but they don't seem to come in skinny. The closet is about 16" wide but the door is only 11". The closest possibility I have found so far is this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....29090 which is decent enough but plastic would be so much cheaper... Hiring a carpenter to put shelves right into the closet would be too expensive to be worth it for something we aren't going to be able to keep anyway.

2) A counter with cabinets underneath, possibly eat-on-able. We have a 5-foot wall space perfect for this. I'm thinking a shallow cabinet with a full size countertop so you can eat at the counter, but would settle for a regular counter/cabinet. Not looking for something custom installed. Preferably not too expensive because chances are it won't fit into whatever home we move into next. I checked Ikea website but they only have things with legs which doesn't appeal to me. I'm visualizing toys and gunk getting stuck under there. Prefer flush against floor.

3) I know I said I had 2 wishes but that was kitchen, sorry. I also need something for DH's seforim. This I'm willing to invest more if I have to, to get a piece worth moving with us throughout the future. Must be strong enough to hold big heavy gemaras and such, preferably adjustable shelves but if not they must be tall enough for large size gemaras et al, and preferably with doors - I like top and bottom doors to protect from dust/humidity, but minimum requirement is bottom doors to facilitate babyproofing.

Thanks in advance! I don't know why I thought this would be so easy, and turns out to be impossible. Maybe I just don't know how to look...


Skinny shelves like these?

http://www.containerstore.com/.....ao=20

For (2), have you considered a filing cabinet with a board or folding table on top?
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 16 2011, 3:33 pm
Thanks, Barbara. Yes, that looks similar to the one I found above. They're both too tall but I wonder if that could be worked out... they're also both similarly priced, which is acceptable but much more than plastic.

(2) that's an interesting idea, especially since I already have a short filing cabinet that hangs out in the kitchen for lack of a better home... I'd still prefer something more like a kitchen cabinet piece but since I haven't found one yet we may have to improvise...
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mommyofnineka




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Sep 17 2011, 1:44 pm
we find the feet on the IKEA bookshelves/cabinets an advantage because since we don't have carpet, we don't have to worry about the bottom of the cabinets getting ruined when we mop. Having said that, we have alos not screwed in the feet so the unit sits flat on the ground and the Billy bookshelves do sit flush with the ground. They also have a IKEA the ability to build a kitchen Island with cabinets or a bar/table unit with cabinets as well.
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Liba




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Sep 17 2011, 3:23 pm
Would shelves designed for a school locker work in your broom closet?
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 18 2011, 12:13 am
Liba wrote:
Would shelves designed for a school locker work in your broom closet?

Maybe, what are they?
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Amital




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 20 2011, 5:00 pm
I made my own shelves for a pantry/cupboard when I bought my house. I did pegboard along the sides, then had wood cut to the correct size and bought some shelve holders that go into the pegboard. You could take more time and stain the shelves, but I didn't, and it is awesome!
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 20 2011, 5:22 pm
So far we ended up going with an Ikea bookcase (with doors!) and the DIY shelves (which we haven't actually done yet but decided to, learned how in theory, and took all measurements. Just need to get to Home Depot)

Figured out that the Ikea kitchen cabinets have little boards sold separately to close off the feet. Still undecided whether to buy.
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