New Vistoe bookcase installed October 2021.

I purchased and self-installed a 53-inch wide wall-mounted bookshelf made by Vistoe in September 2021. The unit was designed to be installed on a partial wall in my living room / foyer and coupled with a built-in bookcase already installed when I purchased my house in 1999 it makes a nice corner library within my house.

The goal was to add additional storage room to hold a growing book collection. I had run out of room in my mish-mash of wooden bookcases and the built-in. I had books stored in cabinet built-ins behind closed doors in the dining room. I was beginning to have books lying on every horizontal surface of my home.

The Vistoe bookcase was not the only bookcase I installed in the summer of 2021. I had also purchased several Hay metal stand-alone bookcases as well. Between all four bookcases, I now have books, Cds, DVDs, magazines and photo materials all stored in order and off of my table and countertops.

***

The Vistoe Bookshelves

The Vistoe bookshelves required some design thinking and planning. Although I was a mechanical engineer in the aviation industry for over 30 years, I received very appreciated help and tips from Vistoe on my design.

My main concern was how to mount the vertical shelf racks, called E-Tracks by Vistoe, to my wall. I planned on adding 7-8 shelves, most of them stocked solidly with book. The shelves were approximately 26-inches wide, so the spacing of the E-Tracks would not match my 16-inch OC spacing of the studs behind my wall. I definitely wanted to tie into the studs to support my load.

Vistoe offers several ways to handle this in their design guides. But I opted to go with my own solution. I don’t mind industrial-looking design elements in my living spaces, so I decided to mount maple wall “doublers” to the wall and attached to the cedar studs via No. 8 x 2 stainless steel flathead screws (8 per doubler).

Most of the doublers were cut from 1 x 4 maple hardboard. A few were cut from 1 x 2 boards. Once cut, I located the holes for the studs and drilled pilot holes, and then countersunk the holes so the 8 x 2 screws would lie flat and slightly below the doubler surface. I don’t own or have access to a drill press, so I did this by hand with a DeWalt cordless drill using drill bushings to keep the holes normal to the surface.

Once these holes were located, drilled and countersunk, I sanded each board in succession with 120g, 220g and 320g sand paper. Several clear coats of Daly’s Profin Satin coating were added to protect the boards and make cleaning and dusting them easier. Once dry, I located, levelled and mounted each of the maple double boards from top to bottom in Image 01 below.

This was the bulk of the work for installing the Vistoe shelves, and was borne by me by my personal choice and design decisions. There are probably easier and less detailed ways to accomplish the same objective.

The E-Tracks were easy to locate and mount onto the maple doublers once they were mounted to the wall. Vistoe provides a very handy level tool to help locate the E-Tracks properly.

Image 02 shows the 26-inch wide metal Vistoe shelves installed. I followed my Vistoe designers guidance on spacing and shelf selection. It was spot-on advice. I mounted the shelves from the bottom up (I believe). There’s a small learning curve, especially with inserting the pins through the center E-track post. The Vistoe literature accompanying the order offers advice here, and after understanding how to insert the center pins through reading and practice on the first two shelves I installed, it was a snap for the other 14 shelves. I think the last 14 shelves took me less than 15 minutes to install. Twenty minutes at most.

Image 03a, Image 03b and Image 04 show detail at the E-track | maple double interface.

Image 05 shows the books as originally loaded onto the new Vistoe bookshelf.

Image 06 shows the same rack from an isometric viewpoint. Here, the Vistoe shelving compliments the pre-existing built-in to form a nice corner home library.

A serendipitously found lighting system…

A serendipitous moment occurred about three weeks after the Vistoe bookshelf system was installed. I came across (in the New York Times, I think) a story on trends in new home lighting systems. One system featured was from an Ohio industrial design firm called Stuff. It was of a cantilevered wall-mount design that matched the spirit of the new Vistoe shelves. The price was right and I liked the simplicity and functionality. The books are in a dark corner at night, and I really liked the extended reach and swingability of the Stuff lighting system. Easy to install, and I just used the simple-to-wire wall outlet cording option.

This light beats keeping a headlamp nearby to search for books or DVDs at night.