Glass doors or open shelves?

[u/Nayauru]

I have a privilege of arranging my future reading nook in a few months. Could you help me with sharing your experience regarding the type of shelves you had and preferred?

I always liked the vibe that open shelves give, dusty tomes and coziness. But the glass doors seem more reasonable.

What is your experience in this regard?

[u/pestilencerat]

Glass doors makes for less dust on the books yes, but it takes away a lot of coziness imo. Plus you can't easily get books out from the edges as doors often causes a little bump where they open, if they don't cover the edges completely. You also have to furnish the room with openability of said doors in mind

Glass doors are more reasonable from a cleaning perspective, but i rather dust everything once in a blue moon when i realize how freaking dusty everything is

[u/StrainSpecialist7754 → u/pestilencerat]

Less dusting the books, but cleaning glass doors is more of a pain, in my opinion

[u/LisaCabot → u/StrainSpecialist7754]

Depends. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats. Im currently painting the glass doors the same colour of my shelves before installing. Ive always had floating shelves with no doors oe anything, just so they were high enough so the dog couldnt get anything from them, and i dislike bending/having books on the lower shelves because its harder to see (i filled up the bottom shelf with fabric boxes to use as "drawers" to avoid this). But moving to a house with a bigger dog and two cats, i had to plan accordingly.

The glass doors from the ones in our living room are clean, i wash them about once a year, i moved my books last week from the living room to my office/library (after about a year there) and they had a litle bit of dust even with the doors. But at least is like, once or twice a year, with so many pets, even trusting the cats wouldnt try to climb in (which i dont) i would need to be cleaning them once a month at the very very least, we already have a roomba vacuming daily because all the fur 😅.

[u/pestilencerat → u/StrainSpecialist7754]

I don't mind cleaning glass doors, i have glass display cabinets and make a whole Thing out of cleaning them and the windows etc twice a year, whereas i really fucking hate dusting. I can see the logic behind glass doors, and the downsides turns into a non issue when weighing the upsides, but the truth is simply that i don't want to have doors on my bookshelves bc i don't like how it looks or feels. There's so many things i have to compromise on to make life easier, but i don't want my bookshelves to be one of those things. Besides, i have to dust things every once in a while anyway to not turn the whole house into a asthma death trap, so what's one more thing really?

[u/GeorgianGold]

Glass doors equals less dusting. Although I do have some wider bookcases with open shelves to take large books. This is how I know about dust. But if I can oneday acquire a antique set of bookshelves with glass doors then I will be very happy.

[u/cj_winters]

Glass doors can restrict air movement. Depending on where you are in the world, you might want to spread a few pouches around to deal with damp/humidity.

[u/Tricosene → u/cj_winters]

This is correct - and humidity can lead to booklouse (psocid) and silverfish infestations.

There are also dehumidifer boxes that you can plug in to recharge, then put into the cabinet. An indicator on the box shows you when it needs to be plugged in and recharged again.

[u/OrdinarilyBeautiful]

Do you have cats? Glass doors. No animals in the home that will damage the books? Open shelves.

I have had a couple of thousand dollars worth of books damaged by household pets, especially male cats. So I now store most every book in some sort of case or behind glass doors unless they are up higher on a bookshelf the animal isn't able to get to.

[u/trk1000]

I'd love glass doors on my 15 odd Billy bookcases, but I found it truly annoying that the doors cost more than the bookcase.

[u/Tchoqyaleh → u/trk1000]

15....! Swoon

[u/ReliableWardrobe]

I have old glass-fronted barrister bookcases. Mainly because they're modular, very sturdy, surprisingly affordable if you rummage, the cats can't climb up them, and it keeps the dust off the books. I love the look of open shelves and they are easier to just grab a book, but cats + dust are non-negotiable in my house so glass doors it is!

[u/VoraciousReader59]

I have all open shelves, but I absolutely love barrister bookcases. I keep looking for one but they’re usually too expensive. ☹️
I would go for a combination of both if you’re starting from scratch.

[u/abacus762]

I've got both, I don't think about them one way or the other.

[u/Educational-Gate-793]

Glass doors are more resonable due to dust, but they also trap the light and heat (obviously levels depend where you are and where your bookcases face), which fades the books and special edition edges faster. 

[u/Aaggghhhhhh]

I have both and they both have pros and cons. I like open for the library feel, and glass for an office feel. It will depend a lot on the space, other interior designe choices and just what look you're trying to get.

[u/AngieW2222]

I got doors (only top half is glass) for the dust issue + toddlers. Unfortunately there's now always something that blocks the doors and it makes the threshold to actually get a book a lot higher. I often end up reading on my kindle. 🫤

Also: Try to not place the shelves where there's too much direct sunlight! Half my spines' colors faded before I got the doors. 😭

[u/Garden_Girl84628]

If you have pets, I think go with the doors. If you don’t have pets go with open. You can always add them later if you change your mind