Ikea Billy Bookshelf > Reviews (9)

A few months ago we seriously did up my youngest sons room, and bought some cupboards and shelving for toy storage. My oldest son (5) helped his Dad set everything up and asked if he was getting new shelves for his room too. No we said, he already had shelves, and while he looked disappointed, he did not ask again, but set to helping us re arrange his brothers room. Now I had no intention of getting new furnishings for two rooms at once, but it didn't seem fair, one child getting everything nice and new while the other was still making do with plastic crate bookshelves. So I got online and looked for the cheapest set I could find. I found a rather flimsy set from Argos in brown, but I hate Argos furniture as it always breaks for us for £29.99. Then I found an Ikea Billy Bookcase in blue which had 6 shelves and was over 6 1/2 feet tall and almost 3 feet wide for £29.90. after reading several favourable reviews here, I decided to give it a try.

We were able to check stock availability online for our local shop, and thankfully the flat pack item did fit in our car, so we did not have to pay delivery charges. I did not set this up myself, but my husband says they were a gift to build and he had them finished in less than 45 minutes with my son helping. I would expect he would have finished in half the time alone. I tend to judge the level of difficulty in building a product by the number of swear words, and I can happily report this was a curse word free installation.

I was really impressed by how nice these look. My son absolutely loves them and they are perfect for storing toys and video games. We have brightly coloured plastic boxes full of toys on the first two shelves, video games and dvd's on the next two, and action men and remote control cars on the last 2, with more rc cars on the top. We did replace his aquarium at the same time, but the difference in his room is amazing and it is so much easier to keep tidy like this. I was also pleased that these came with brackets to attach them to the wall securely to prevent them from falling down on a child. Finally, they seem able to withstand a bit of abuse with cars be driven over them etc.. and no damage to the paint.

But I think my ultimate endorsement of this product is that I went out and bought two identical units the next month to do up another room in our house ( it's basically a second living room, used for computer, play and school). The next two sets went up as easily as the first and have completely transformed the room.
These are used for their intended purpose of book storage, but also have small boxes at the bottom to store toys and puzzles. I really can not believe what a difference this has made for me when it comes to tidying up. It is so much faster and easier having a well organised place for everything and the whole house just looks so much nicer now. I really can not believe what a difference these have made in the rooms we used them in. I absolutely love them.

Will also be reviewed on dooyoo