Ikea Billy Bookcases

Do not purchase Billy Bookcases – Purchased 4 billy bookcases for delivery and installation. All unusable. All poorly machined - misaligned holes, plus holes cut to edge so not safely a hole but open rim, and holes in completely wrong position. This is a tooling machine problem in production and would have been known to production. Yet they shipped stock to Richmond store and delivered to me. Must be hundreds of unusable product being sold. Customer Relations has attitude.

Poor design and materails – I bought my first Billy bookcase around 2003 and have witnessed the gradual degradation and material quality over the past two decades due to what I can only assume to be aggressive cost engineering. Where the shelves in my first Billy bookcase were reasonably dense MDF/Chipboard covered in plastic laminate, the shelves for the latest iteration… Read more

literally weigh half as much and are covered in a cheap paper wrap which scratches and dents if you look at it sideways. Metal camlocks have been replaced with the plastic variety and the shelf supports are the cheapest diecast metal you can imagine.

Moving shelves even once or twice will cause the paper laminate to chip and tear, even if you're exceptionally careful.

The backing is now a folded piece of cardboard which needs to be tacked into the centre shelf from the rear. The challenge with this is that it requires the tacks to be placed centrally with no visual guidance - if they're too close to the edges of the shelf, the thin paper laminate easily splits and chips.

Beyond that, there are some other design flaws which aren't great. The hinges protrude into the shelf space, meaning an books leaning against them will get dented and damaged. The doors also mean that shelves cannot be easily added or removed without removing the doors, particularly the optional glass shelves which must slot in from the front. Removing the doors to insert a shelf is a hassle.

The optional height extender also cannot easily fit over pre-existing wall fixings that have been attached to the top of the cabinet. Although there is a slot on the rear of the height extender for the brackets to pass through, it doesn't allow enough clearance at the rear. Moving the backing on the height extender forward a few mm would fix this.

On the plus side, it is reasonably practical and new shelves and doors are readily available. I just wish it was made to a higher standard so it wasn't so cheap and disposable. Ultimately that would be better for the environment.

Share holders won’t be happy – IKEA needs to be able to post to outer towns if necessary, by not must be losing them millions off dollars in financial gaining for them . You’d think they as a company would be willing to send anywhere if the customer was willing to pay for that delivery themselves. How can share holders be happy with the way the company is being run at the moment, losing them lots and lots off financial gain .

Billy Bookcase – Very disappointed as the back of the bookcase is now a piece of cardboard that has been folded into three for packaging. When you unfold the cardboard back and insert it into the back of the bookcase the three fold lines are visible and look like cardboard Show details

Strong, sturdy bookcase – Bought my first Ikea Billy Bookcase a couple of weeks ago and absolutely love it. Very sturdy and strong. Looks really nice and was easy to put together. I also purchased the glass door to add on. Very happy. Thank you. Show details

Good bookcase but extra shelves are useless – Not beautiful but practical. I bought 2 extra shelves for each bookcase, but found that they can't be placed in the proper position because of the door hinges and some missing holes. Now I have 2 shelves in each bookcase that are too low to store my books upright. A missed opportunity. Show details

BRILLIANT AND VERSATILE – We have Billy book cases in nearly every room in our house; most are overstuffed with heavy objects, and some date from 1982. None have ever let us down. Any idiot can assemble one, they are that simple. As long as you can read accurately and hold a screwdriver you can't miss. Our out of level floors mean that the doors occasionally don't hang… Read more

level, but we bought a pack of Ikea's very useful flooring wedges that solve the problem caused by off level floors in no time. We also converted a Billy into a whelping box for our dog, who happily raised seven pups in it. We used cheap Ikea curtain rails for crush bars. The white finish stood up well to nearly 9 weeks of being inhabited by 32 paws with sharp nails - Wow!

Marriage Saved – My wife and I decided to test our marriage by going to IKEA in Marsden Park and buying two “Billy” bookcases for our office. We were aided with loading the flat pack bookcases (2) into our car which was a fantastic service we thought. To our surprise not only were the instructions easy to read and understand but everything was included in the box… Read more

and it even held a couple of spare screws here and there. The material used for the bookcase is your standard particleboard and melamine foil, the sturdiness however, surprised us. To complement the purchase the box also had the wall fastener which made it great to secure and avoid any future issues. We are so happy with our choice we are going back in September for one more bookcase for our office.

Practical – I purchased this bookshelf a couple months ago and have started noticing the doors stop closing properly, I have to have at least 4 tries to make the door remain shut! Other than that, the bookshelf is really practical. It fits a lot of books and other bits and pieces. Also with the glass doors the dust stays out which saves me from cleaning… Read more

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If you are considering buying it, read more about it - it isn't the cheapest option and I am sure there is other shelves out there that function better and are at a similar price. Large, option with doors, stylish functionality not so good

OK – This is a low priced bookshelf from Ikea. It comes in a couple of colours and is large enough to hold a lot of books. My main problem with it is that if you read the instructions a certain way, you may think you are putting in the panels in the correct way, but you actually have it backwards. So, make sure you really concentrate and read and… Read more

understand it completely. However it could just be us, and you could assemble this easily! We bought this because it was low in price and its large in size. You really have to follow the instructions carefully and have a lot of patience when you are assembling it. I dont know if its just us, but we made a couple of noticeable mistakes while assembling this bookcase which cannot be corrected. Make sure you read the instructions carefully and follow it step by step. Dont try to do the assembling in a hurry, because you may think you understand, but you can do it backwards and not realize it until you have put the screws in, and then its too late.