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How To Plug Bookcase Shelf Holes

 

BOOKCASE SHELF HOLES……
do they bother you?

If you have them and they don’t bother you – all the power to you. There is nothing wrong with them!

I WISH they didn’t bother me. The funny thing is they don’t bother me in other people’s houses. I’ve noticed them on both ready-made furniture the likes of Ikea’s Billy bookcases (3 of which I used for my living room built-ins) and also in fine custom built bookcases.

To have the flexibility of moving shelves is a wonderful thing, I think we can all agree!

I appreciate the styling and storage options the ability to move shelves provides, but I knew they would bug me in my own house.

So I filled in all the holes that I wasn’t using. All 236 of them. And sanded. All 236 covered holes. It was a big pain in the butt. And then painted the interiors of the bookcases, which I was going to do anyway to match my trim – but oy vey – the holes were time consuming.
In retrospect, I’m really glad I took the time to attend to that detail, because you know –
those little holes were gonna drive me nuts.
And I knew I could easily pop out the DAP filler with a screwdriver if I ever want to move a shelf.
 
If the holes bug you too, instead of filling each and every one –
the most tedious job outside of painting stair spindles or scraping wallpaper –
consider this alternative!
These little plugs are not flush with the bookcase or cabinet, but they are a heckofa lot easier than filling and sanding each and every hole. The definitely minimize the visual clutter of the shelf holes and they are fairly easy to remove if you want to change your shelf height.
*Bonus tip*
While you’re at it, paint right over the little shelf brackets to minimize their appearance –
There you have it –  earth shattering quick tips for a Tuesday!
Happy day lovelies!

 

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Comments

  3. Perfect! The holes are a deal-breaker for me. Love your cover-up job. The Ikea fillers (news to me) are a good idea, but no where near as nice as all that hard work you did.

  4. I am totally getting these the next time I'm at IKEA. The bookcase in our family room has 1,001 holes (I think the previous owners must have wanted to have the option of moving the shelves every half inch 🙁 and it drives me nuts. But since we may be selling our house within the year I don't want to fill them all in. Awesome tip!