Description:

A project from Thomas Coyle:

I'm in the process of replacing carpet in various areas of my house with hardwood flooring. One such area is my master bedroom retreat. I collect books, and have about 3000 at last count, which requires a lot of bookcase space.
While I'm in the middle of this most recent remodel, I packed most of them away, but left a few out to explore an idea. I've finished measuring and should be ordering some actuators soon for this.

The plan is to take three niches in the retreat (the first two are shown in the first picture - a small niche on the left, and a larger one on the right where I've already placed two bookcases; and the third is to the right of the fireplace in the second image) and attach floor-to ceiling shelves in those niches against the wall.
Ikea "Billy" bookcases with two height extensions each (I have 9 foot ceilings) are inexpensive and perfect for this duty (each 9-foot bookcase costs $150), as you can see in the first image.
But: these four units (two on the right side in the first image, one in the left side of first image, and one in the second image) won't be used for books - rather, they'll be used for linens (this house is woefully short on linen storage), and, again, will be fixed against the wall.

Here's the fun part (try to envision this): in front of the fixed bookcase in the second image will be another bookcase of the same size.
In front of the three bookcases in the two niches in the first image will be five bookcases, going wall-to-wall in front of that protrusion that sits between the two niches.
So, in the first image, when you enter the room (the door is on the right), all you'll see is an edge-to-edge continuous wall of 9-foot-tall bookcases, and in the second image, all you'll see is a single bookcase flush with the front-edge of the niche.

The front bookcase in the second image will have an actuator attached, as will the two front bookcases on the right side of the first image, and the one front bookcase on the far left. Using the exact same mechanism as I used on the DVD racks in project 1, I'll have four switches connected to ELK DPDT relays, controlling 30" actuators for each of the movable four bookcases. Hit a switch, and the connected bookcase in question will move forward three feet to expose the bookcase behind it for access to the linen storage. I'll be adding LED lighting to the ceiling between the front and back bookcases to provide lighting when the front bookcase is moved.