The Truth About Billy (bookcases)

[Tita Gidge]

Be honest.

 

Are the Billy bookcases really that great?

 

I'm not really an IKEA fan.

 

I'm not a fan of particleboard and MDF products.

 

My current bookshelves are wood built-ins, made by my brother. I'm moving, and they're not coming with. He's offered to make new ones, but ... he's busy. And I'm impatient. He said it'd be a few weeks before he could get to it, but I can drive to IKEA and get these bad boy Billys put up this weekend.

 

Oh, and I saw a blog project that used Billys as the basis for a built-in. Also thought about copying that idea so I can get the bookshelves up now (immediate gratification) but have the look of a built-in in three weeks (delayed gratification). But still wondering about the quality of the Billys ... what, if any, benefit to using Billys rather than just building a standard wood built-in.

 

I'd be spending the same amount of money either way, and was wondering what others' experience was with Billy. Is he as great as people would have me believe? Is he worth delaying gratification for?

 

Dish.

 

If it matters, we're talking the equivalent of 6-8 bookshelves (Billy or wood) spread across two walls, either independently or as two separate built-ins each featuring 3-4 bookshelves (Billy or wood).

[Random]

Billy is great, if you don't have a carpenter brother who is willing to build you something fabulous! In our experience, the quality is sufficient. The shelves hold as many books as I pile onto them without sagging.

 

It's a pain, but I would wait the three weeks, so you can have something built that is just right for the space.

 

Are you *sure* it's only going to be a 3-week wait?

[PentecostalMom]

I would get something built from real wood. My husband is a carpenter by hobby and we have moved 14 times in the last 13 years. I have bookcases he has built that are still in top-notch shape and the others....well let's just say that I am tossing out the last one in a few weeks. Dh will spend Memorial Day weekend building bookcases. MDF is junk. He tried to build a bookcase and toybox out of it for our church. They ended up scrapping the whole thing and starting over with real wood. I would rather have abookcase built of plywood than any type of fakeness. It's not worth the $$.

 

I had to comment on the poll. I am an IKEA fan, they do have some real wood things, in particular a wardrobe I am drooling over my my ds's room. Honestly, I will probably end up getting it unless I can find an alternative on craigslist. I just despise fake wood/MDP/particle board/pressboard. Whatever it is called, it is junk!

[Starr]

They work well in dh's office but if I had the chance for built ins in the near future I would wait a few weeks for wood.

[momtokea]

We have Billy bookcases in our basement and they are fine there. I wouldn't put them on the main floor because I prefer better quality, but they are fine for our basement.

[Ailaena]

Billy is great; I have only one shelf sagging after 7ish years and I have them WAY overstuffed.

 

But I would DEFINITELY wait.

[Sara in AZ]

I end up loathing most of our IKEA furniture. It just doesn't hold up for us. But the exception is the Bill(ies?). They are tough! We're going on probably 6 or 7 years now, and have had no problems at all. I vote for Billy!

[Giraffe]

I had a Billy. It was a workhorse of a bookcase. I still regret getting rid of it.

 

That said, I'd wait.

[sbgrace]

I'm happy with our Billy cases. That said, a month or less wait for built ins would be an easy decision for me. I'd wait.

[Allearia]

We have at least ten billy bookcases. I like them, they are cheap and easy to put together and look fine with books. A couple have sagging shelves, but I probably put too much on them.

 

But having a chance to get real wood custom built? It's a no brainer. Maybe if you have another area of the house it would be nice to move them to later if you can afford that. Otherwise - and I hate waiting! - wait for the good stuff.

[mumto2]

I do like them but mine do have some sagging. I also collapsed a shelf this week. That being said I am really hard on bookcases. I tend to cram way more then normal on and they are surviving. 5 years old.

[bettyandbob]

I have 3 tall ones in my kitchen (one is a corner shelf), 3 tall in dd's bedroom and 3 short ones in ds's bedroom. We've had them for years. They are fine.

 

BUT if my brother could build me shelves, even if I had to wait a bit, I would wait.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I'd wait for the wooden ones.

[Meriwether]

Wood. Wood. Wood, wood, wood. I've got the cheapest particle board bookcases available ($27.50 B) ), but only because we move. When I know what my final house is like, I will either custom build or buy solid wood.

[Spryte]

Wait for wood. :)

 

I have been tempted by Billy at times, especially since seeing some beautiful pics here, but have always resisted. Particleboard out gasses, and it won't work for our family, though that doesn't impact everyone in the same way.

[Wheres Toto]

I'm not a fan of a lot of IKEA furniture. The dressers we bought are crap, ds's bed gave us trouble. BUT, I love my Billys. I have some Billy's that I've had for over 10 years. They went through 6 moves - a couple of the moves I took them completely apart, some I kept them together. They are holding up great and I'm constantly putting doors on the bottom and taking them off again, rearranging the shelves.

 

I have two Billys that are on either side of our fireplace. They look like built-ins (and we do have them attached to the wall). The backing is off the top half because they are in front of windows.

 

I have two other Billys that are mounted on the wall and then dh added shelves between the two of them (we had a vent we couldn't block). They are holding up great as well.

 

In your situation, if I KNEW that it would only be a few weeks, I'd probably wait. Any longer and I'd go with the Billy's and work them into a built-in look.

[JennyD]

We have tons of Billy bookcases -- I don't even know the exact number, but they're in every room -- and they have held up incredibly well, some of them over multiple moves.

 

That said, built-in wood is clearly a better option. If three weeks means "three weeks," then I'd wait for sure. But if "three weeks" means "a year," then Team Billy all the way!

[Janie Grace]

"Wood is, um, always worth waiting for." ??? Not even going to ask, not even going to comment. But :lol:

[Leav97]

I'm on team EXPEDIT.

[Ravin]

I don't own any Billy bookcases, but I do have some other (probably cheaper) particleboard bookcase from Ikea, as well as a hardwood bookcase from Ikea, one of their good, heavy solid cubby-style shelves, one of their smaller particle board cubby-style shelves, and a cheap particleboard bookcase.

 

Even the cheapest Ikea bookcase is sturdy enough to actually hold books, while the Walmart one has been bowing from the first day--I keep expecting it to collapse and it just looks pathetic. I avoid putting too many heavy books on it.

 

The Ikea ones are all quite capable of handling being loaded for bear. The only one of them no likely to survive a move is the big cubby, which is pretty old (almost ten years). The walmart one isn't worth the money of the cost of putting it on a truck.

 

Anyway, go with Billy if that's what you want!

[Sisyphus]

Expedit, all the way. Yes, they are made of glitz (glue+shiz), but those things will hold a ton of books, and survive multiple round the world moves. I know because we have 4 and have hauled 2 of them twice the earths circumference in miles. And the squares are hip, too.

 

But ,y brother builds me nothing, so in your case, I'd wait for built ins.

[LucyStoner]

One, a few weeks doesn't seem like that long to wait for custom bookshelves. When you said wait, I assumed you meant up to a few years to save up the money or something. I'd wait, especially since you can build nice ones for a nice price with your brother generously helping you out like that.

 

Two, the billy shelves are fine. We have 2 used tall ones. They seem to hold the books on them off of the floor as well as our other, nicer shelves. It's a bookshelf, not a work of art.

[Mrs Mungo]

It probably depends upon your situation. Billies are perfect for us because we are always moving. I have Billy bookcases that have been moved from Germany to the US, to Hawaii, back to CONUS and are still in great shape.

[Farrar]

Billy is a pretty solid product. My only complaint is that the backs warped. We have nine Billys and during the winter after being sick of things falling through the back, I pulled several of them out, cleaned them off, renailed the backs and then duck taped them on in multiple layers. I really like that you can add those two top shelves to Billy. But I'm sad that they discontinued the corner Billy, which I thought had a really awesome design. We have the corner in the mid-brown and it's great.

[gardenmom5]

I have a wall of billy's in my family room and basement. I had a tight budget, and tight space. (there were bookcases I liked better, but they were too wide for what I wanted, and they were out of my budget.) they've held a ton of books with no problem. I do like the depth of the 15" better, as the 11" isn't deep enough. I wanted to do full-height doors glass/solid - but some books extended over the edge of the shelves so I stuck with half-doors. the thing about the half doors - unless you have the extensions on top - the esthetics look unbalanced. (the extensions don't come in the 15" depth). My dd also has a wall of billy's she is happy with.

 

If waiting three weeks would have gotten me custom made wood for the same price, I'd have gone for it in a heartbeat.

[Samiam]

I'm a huge Ikea fan....probably have at least one piece in every room. That being said, I don't like the Billy simply based on the look. No doubt from repeated reviews, they hold up. But they still look like they came from Walmart. The love of Ikea, for me, is the fact that its economical but still has style. The Billy is the one piece from Ikea that doesn't. I'd go for real built-ins, and a little crown moulding, and that's nice. Personally, we are all about Expedit here.

[TeacherZee]

As much as I LOVE my Billys, if I could get built-ins I would donate my Billys in a heartbeat.

[Heather in Neverland]

I'm on team EXPEDIT.

 

Absolutely. I loved my expedit bookcases!!