Displaying Completed Scrapbooks???

I purchased two tall bookshelves at Ikea. They were pretty inexpensive. They have adjustable shelving and you could store an elephant on them!! They also come with hardware so that you can anchor them to the wall (which is nice for kids sake)
They are tall and skinny, but they also carry short, wide ones. I would assume that they are built just a well. I do believe that you have a choice of colors. White, black and tan (at least that is what it was last year)

Good luck finding what you want,
Margaret :)

P.S. I didnt look to see where you are located. If you cant drive to Ikea, they are pretty reasonable with S&H.

Heritage Makers is another great company that can help with scanning and printing into bound books. Another benefit of doing this is that they are digitally preserved in case something DOES happen to your scrapbooks! And you can always order another copy. Love it!

My aunt is a Creative Memories consultant and talked to me about this. Getting all that nice work scanned in, digitized and printed in light-weight books is one option.

Personally, I hate putting photo albums at the bottom of book shelves! That will flood first, in that unfortunate case.

Another option could be to install kitchen-duty cabinets along a wall in your house for display of all your albums.

Send me a personal message if you would like to discuss the printed books idea.

D.

We found some heavy duty bookshelves at Skandinavia in Austin and they are deep enough to hold the type of scrapbook you are describing (mine are on the second shelf). Maybe cheaper would be IKEA but am not sure how sturdy. If you put in a closet make sure you put one of those water absorber things to keep from mildewing and try building a shelf out that allows you to put them with the spines vertically. Good luck!

Those suckers do take up space, don't they? Congrats on having completed so many, that takes a LOT of time! :) How about rotating them? I would box up most of them and put them in a safe place in case of a flood or fire, and leave a few of them out as "coffee table books" to look at. Then every few months or so, you could rotate them out - bring out some of your older ones and put the ones that had been on display away.

S.

I second the chest. I have two cedar chests, one at the foot of my bed and one in the living room for a coffee table. They are full of scrapbooks!

There are other coffee tables that are good for displaying books, but they wouldn't hold that many so you'd likely want to rotate them. Make sure they aren't easily grabbed by the little one, as they can do some real damage fast!

I think it would be awesome to store your scrapbooks in a trunk/chest - like the hardwood chests used for keepsakes, such as heirloom blankets. I have a lovely cedar one that a dear relative restored and gave to me for christmas several years back. They can withstand a ton of weight - For a while I had ALL of my cd binders inside it, which was a simply ridiculous amount of weight. Not sure about the absolute weight but that chest has been tossed through all sorts of tough times and is proving indestructible. It is even totally impervious to toddler-type damage, my kiddo has run quite the gamut of tests and experiments!

If you use a cedar wood or a nice cypress wood, you will also have the added protection against pests and it will help keep everything mint for generations to come. My husband is an incredible carpenter by the way ;) He makes custom furniture, entertainment centers; well, if you can think of it, he can build it for you! He is quite skilled and has a gift for naturally creating works of art even while building the simplest of cabinetry. It's a real treat to watch his work progress. In fact, he noticed me typing and instantly popped up with an idea for a coffee table that slides open underneath to reveal all your books! Yup, ideas a plenty - with the tools and skills to see them through to finished perfection!

It would not be at all out of reach to get a custom made chest or table (or any other idea) to store your memories. Even a simple plywood (not particle board of mdf) will last for so much longer, and I can make you a sachet with cedar oils to deter pests. Really the sky is the limit if you think about building for yourself!

Don't get me wrong, I am all over IKEA and am constantly repurposing things every which-a-way for all sorts of household needs. It's all part of the simple existence we lead. I just tend to be more concerned with lasting storage and protection for our family's sentimental nostalgia, so I go for solid woods and quality craftsmanship. Frankly, I just pretty much avoid anything made from compressed board and cheap materials because you end up replacing it, and then replacing the replacement after you sit on hold for an hour with a foreign call center because the parts are mismatched and the workmanship was haphazardly shoddy at best.

An heirloom quality chest for your scrapbooks would be super! Think in terms of something that is equally worthy to house your own works of art! These scrapbooks are so special, and you should take pride in sharing them with your loved ones and so they deserve equally special storage and care with display. Use the creativity you tapped in making the scrapbooks to dream up something specifically for you :)

I would be happy to brainstorm and send pictures of some of my husband's work to you if you are interested. It's all just so very beautiful; the boxes made of exotic woods, the the knife handles he crafts, it's something special and handmade - the types of things passed from parent to child and on again after time...I often marvel at the diverse grains and textures that naturally pop out of the different pieces.

Whatever you choose, please consider a purchase from a local, independently owned business in your area. With the current economic trends, supporting your neighbors will guarantee a better quality/customer service experience and really help those in need. The small businesses run by artisans and craftsmen have become a rare breed, and contain legacies worth infinitely more than anything you might find at an Ikea or Walmart or Crate&Barrel.

Big box stores will probably always exist, but the really truly unique treasure chest that will cradle your very precious and important memories intrinsically holds such significant value that shouldn't be left to mundane mass-production. The experiences of dreaming and designing will add even more memories and experiences to the wealth held within your books, and you will meet other artists and dreamers; skilled friends with unique talents that combine to form something quite fabulous and unexpected.

Our communities should come together and celebrate the sharing of our skills with one another - that is truly something of incomparable merit that we should all try to cherish! So happy dreaming and creating!! :) And if you would like some added ideas and inventiveness, please do let me know. I, too, am an artist down to the very core and do happily pursue it to the fullest...

Sweet Dreams!