During my five months absence due to what I had thought been Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (turns out to be Tendonisitis after going through a test that involved me getting electrocuted last week- OMFG IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!!! ;A;), it was torturous being unable to write. For the time being during the spring season I was able to distract myself with my addiction to Legend of Korra, as I’ve always been a HARDCORE fan of the ATLA series. But once that was over, I was at lost and I didn’t know what to do. Meanwhile at the same time I was preparing and designing a slight remodel to my room. You see, I’m quite a Manga collector. I had one, ONE bookshelf and boy, it was full to the limit. I needed new bookcases ASAP. So then throughout this summer my project was refurnishing and working within a budget. On top of my constantly growing manga collection, I’ve recently become an avid Figure collector. I never actually paid attention to this stuff before until Tiger & Bunny happened, but this year, awakened by the boredom and the horrible reality check of being unable to blog and the risk of being forced to have an  operation- side of me that’s not only costy, but a newfound appreciation of art. Anyhow, this entry is basically about the summer project I did this summer, and if you’re looking for ideas for your room due needing more bookcases, or first time doing so, feel free to read and hopefully some of my ideas and infos will help you out.

So here’s the process of it.

This is the orignal plan  for my room was really simple. It started off like this using Ikea: BESTA cabinets.

 I had planned to use three (*SQUINTS* maybe four- I can’t double check on the actual paper since uh… no joke, my puppies chewed it up ^^;;;) BESTA cabinets to be treated as both, Manga and Figure Display case. The main reason I was so caught up with the whole BESTA cabinet was because I was thinking about the Ultimate Madoka scale figure which is pretty big, and she was- at the time, the first scale figure I’ve ever ordered, so I had no idea what would be best. But in the end, I scrapped this plan because I came up with another one and liked it better.

Since I’m not going to show you all twelve designs of the BESTA Planning sheet I used, so I’ll used the latest idea I had, and the one we were actually going to go with.

Mind you, this ⬆ plan wasn’t cheap. ALL, and let me stress, ALL the shelves that can be taken in and out were going to be replaced with GLASS shelves so that i can put in more shelves and fit as many mangas and figures as I can. The glass shelves were also going to serve to be able to have a light inside so that I can see the figures clearly.

And then in the end, we did this➠, which was a better plan altogether. Three White Ikea: Billy bookcases (202 cm Height / Width: 80cm , 28cm Depth). Two glass doors (which were hell of a bitch to put together. =____=), and I took advantage of using Billy #3′s shelves that were included in the package and divided it 2 each for Billy 1 & 2 so that I could create 8 shelves instead of 6. I’m glad the plan worked out the way I had hoped it to. I had decided to use Glass Shelves for Billy #3 since I plan to put in a light.  Either way it helped significantly being able to work around with the height since the glass shelves are not as thick as the ones that are included in the package After putting them together I realized I had just enough room for a 4th Billy Bookshelf, and so I bought it.

Now, for those who are looking for bookcases for Mangas, Billy Bookcase is the answer. By default, you have  six shelves, but I gave mine eight without adding the extension (nor would have I been able to, because my ceiling isn’t high enough). I was able to fill in two of my bill bookcases with two extra shelves each because the third billy bookcase was getting its own glass shelves. I have to buy two more shelf units for the 4th billy, but it’s cheap and no biggie. As for the number of volumes the The billy bookcase can hold, it varies on how thick the manga volume is, but the average in my collection is 40 – 45 volumes PER shelf. I have 8 shelves, lets take 8 x 40 = 320 volumes in ONE BILLY BOOKCASE!!! Oh and if you’re worried about series like, Darkhorse’s Cardcaptor Sakura volumes, or Light Novels such as Spice & Wolf, you have one shelf that would fit those sized volumes per bookcase if you followed the 8 shelves plan.

Billy #3 is the middle and the only bookcase besides the single one that is located on the far other side of the room, (sadly not as visible) that is being covered by a door. Unfortunately you don’t have a choice, and for a regular billy you have to have two doors, not one. Mind you the doors are a BITCH to put on, and it’s NOT something you can do on your own!!!!

Billy #4 right now isn’t full (or filled whatsoever). It currently holds CCS and Spice and Wolf volumes along with one of my Japanese manga and artbook as well as being invaded decorated by the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Puella Magica Nendoroids Petites. They are quite charming, but I had quite some trouble putting Ultimate Madoka’s wings on and wasn’t too pleased seeing a few bits of chipped paint. But they are petites and my first purchase of petites, so I can’t say much about them, nor am I encouraged to get more petites in the future. BUT THEY ARE STILL SO CUTE!

That’ll be it for my summer project entry. If you’ve read it from start to finish, I hoped you enjoyed and that I was able to be a bit of help if you were looking for ideas or information. Also I’ll like to say that I might, (can’t say for sure) start doing coverages on figures (scale figures, nendoroids, figmas…), but I haven’t quite decided on that yet. :3