Bookcase vs Bookshelf: What’s the Difference?
When I knew I wanted to make The Ellie Bookcase, before I even bought the wood, I had to decide what to search for to spark my inspiration. I searched for bookshelves, then I searched for bookcases. Just like the words, the two furniture pieces are similar with a minute difference.
To cut to the chase, a bookcase is a free standing or built in, typically large piece of furniture with shelves spaced to hold books, with the entire unit resting on the ground. A bookshelf is smaller, and often suspended, hanging on a wall, comprised of at least one shelf and sized to fit books.
That’s it, size is the differentiator. But I do want to break it down further.
We’ll use two shelves I’ve built as examples.
Bookcase
Bookshelf
Now The Ellie Bookcase isn’t big, it’s only 42 inches tall, but it is free standing and has a case construction. So I decided to give it the moniker, bookcase rather than bookshelf.
But there’s a little more to it. One of the biggest questions on my mind is, if I have a shelf, but I don’t put books on it, is it a bookshelf? Now what if I decide to place books on the shelf, is it now a bookshelf?
I found references saying a bookshelf has no sides while a bookcase is closed in on both sides. And that a bookcase is a collection of shelves while a book shelf is a single or few shelves. It seems like these are arbitrary definitions with too much overlap.
Then there’s the bookshelf. It is technically three shelves, although it’s really two with a top. It has sides, but it is wall hanging. By definition it is technically a case because it has sides, but it doesn’t touch the floor and it is small. So I’d call it shelving and if I put a book on it then it’s a bookshelf.
How about floating shelves? I made these for a small bathroom. Technically, there is a book on one of the shelves, but they aren’t bookshelves in my mind because that’s not really their purpose. Their purpose is to display items, not to hold books. Considering the name, bookshelf I think we’d have to say, by the name alone, the shelf can only be called a book shelf if it holds books.
If these floating shelves were built with the purpose to hold books then they would be considered bookshelves, but to me, floating shelves are their own classification of shelf. I wouldn’t correct someone if they referenced a floating shelf full of books as a bookshelf though.
All this to say, words are weird. Bookcase or bookshelf, it doesn’t really matter because either word puts a mental image in your head of a structure, with shelves, holding books. That’s the important part.
I went down this rabbit hole because I wanted to be technically correct with the naming of my bookcase. What I was avoiding is being called out in the comments on my YouTube video for naming a bookcase a bookshelf and having a debate about the meaning of those two words take away from the point of the video. The craftsmanship that went into the bookcase and the reason why I built it to begin with.
Now you are armed with the knowledge of what a bookshelf is and is not, the difference between a bookshelf and a bookcase, and why none of that really matters. What matters is that the owner enjoys the piece and uses it however they want.