Skeletor

After having the hardest time selling our Ikea Expedit bookcase (see related cheapskate woes), Marlon and I vowed to move on from Ikea and give our beloved books storage they truly deserved. The number of books we now own have nearly doubled since we first moved into Singapore, and this time I was on the lookout for something that would be for keeps. 

I've realized that I've outgrown my Indian/ethnic phase and moved into a rustic/industrial phase, or today's more kick-ass, far less chintzy version of shabby chic. So some form of industrial shelving was on my mind, inspired by relaxed, modern images like this.

Eep, I can't remember where I pulled this from. 

I found a gorgeous version from Anthropologie online. But it was too bank-breaking to be even considered. Besides, they don't ship these outside of the US or UK.

Marlon and I spent a good part of an afternoon trekking to De Troubadour in Amstelveen, where we found this. But at nearly €1,000 for the size our books required, it was just way, way over budget.

After a few weeks of obsessively searching online, I was thisclose to taking up Marlon on his offer to build it himself from steel ladders and a few planks of wood. But then I came across Roeg Holt, a website featuring some thoroughly kick-ass furniture made from recycled wood. A lot of the pieces were too chunky for my taste, but there was this. 

I emailed the designer to find out about having this made to our specifications. My first email to him started off "Dear Roeg..." thinking that Roeg Holt was a person's name. When he answered, hindi pala Roeg ang pangalan niya. Oops! The designer, Gert Valkema, agreed to build a custom 2.1m x 2m shelf for less than €650, including delivery from Groningen, where he lives. Winner!

When he issued me an invoice, I had to laugh out loud. The bookshelf is called Skeletor! This is obviously a designer with a sense of humor.

Gert drove two hours from Groningen last Monday with Skeletor. I welcomed him with tea and some biscuits and we had a nice chat while he assembled the steel frames and wooden planks in our dining room.

The planks are recycled industrial scaffolding, so you know they're sturdy.

Skeletor after assembly, waiting to gain control over all Eternia hold all our books.

Finally, after over a month, the books are off the floor! I was forced to give up my idea to intersperse them with little knickknacks. Stacking them made me realize how many books we actually have. And so many are still unread!

Marlon was not a fan of my color-coding scheme back in Singapore, but now he agrees with it as it just makes this whole mass of books look better and neater. He gets one shelf for his comics and business books (and for Spiderman, who is on his knees in agony after the death of Mary Jane), and I get one shelf for my notebooks, work files, and writing and creativity books. 

Since Rogue used to knock books out of our bookshelf all the time, we decided to stack the books in vertical piles to make them more Rogue-proof. Rogue also did an inaugural climb of Skeletor all the way to the top shelf yesterday (don't ask me how) and made it safely back down. I guess that means they're friends now!