Bookshelves

OK today i changed my bookshelf plans from a 4x4 or 4x5 cubes bookshelf to a 3x4 just cos it will be tons easier to make. It needs to fit in the space between the wall & the fireplace, traditionally a total pain in the ass to work with in old houses. The room's got a moulding round the bottom of the wall (whatever the technical name for that is) which is sticking out 2-3cm & is 30 cm high. How massive is that. Nice, orright, but with that fireplace its painful for fitting furniture & your bed never fits bloody anywhere. Anyway i decided that since they are shelves, & since shelves hold things up, & since things often weigh something, i want the weight to travel right down the sides to the floor. So i can't make it 120 wide till it gets low enough to be 116 wide, where the moulding is. Cos then the weight is all caggled up. Let me draw a diagram...

This shows ya where i reckon the weight goes in the 2 different designs. In the first one the weakness is going to be in the bottom shelf there & eventually it'll bow. And not to mention the 2nd version is much easier to make & looks nicer cos its simple.

So now its gonna be 115.8cm across the main part of it (to fit space of 116cm) & the top piece of wood is gonna be 120 to just fit in the space (space is 120 up there) & keep some dust outta falling down the sides. Then the insides will be made of 37cm cubes (except they only go back 25cm so they ain't exactly cubes). The wood is 12mm thick so fingers crossed i calculated ok.

I'm all excited about it cos i spent hrs working out the design & changed it a number of times as technical & aesthetik problems come up. It shows u how challenged i really am i reckon. Cos look what it ended up, could u make anything more boring? But i'm still excited. Worked it so it all fits on one piece of 2400mm x 1200mm MDF & so its pretty cheap. The board is 32 bucks & the cutting is 25. So u can't make it any easier really. I'll just glue & screw it together & paint it white & it will disappear against the white wall, there will just be objects floating in squares on the wall. Well thats the idea. I'm just hoping i calculated it right & it'll actually work out. Pick up my bits tomorrow.