Bookcase over baseboard heat?

Q: I’d like to build a bookcase like the one in your May 2003 issue (FHB #154, pp. 64-69), but I don’t know how to deal with the baseboard heat. How do I let the heat out? Are there special steps to take because of this concentrated heat?

A: Gary M. Katz, author of A Bookcase That Breaks the Rules, replies: I’ve run into this problem many times, notably when I lived in a house in northern Arizona that had baseboard heat. I built bookcases on nearly every wall. My solution was to elevate them above the heaters, using legs to raise the cases. I experimented with several bookcase designs, each of which worked. Some incorporated simple 4x4 posts that were high enough to clear the baseboard heaters, and some had scalloped aprons that allowed the hot air to move freely beneath the bookcase. The aprons added a dramatic dimension to the built-in look that I hadn’t anticipated, especially because most of the bookcases were floor-to-ceiling structures. I discovered, though, that the heat played havoc with the joinery on the case bottoms, so I started installing drywall on the bottoms, which seemed to deflect the problem perfectly.