When Design Within Reach launched the Sapien bookcase, it seemed like a brilliant idea: a bookshelf that allows books to be stacked vertically over five feet high, to form a neat stack from which you could easily remove any book. CB2 promptly knocked off the rectangular-pillar-with-removable-shelves-design. We bought one, then rued the day. The problem is, once the bookshelf is loaded with books, it becomes too heavy to move, a major flaw for something that is really about living fluidly, the opposite of built-in shelving.

So we devised the perfect hack: a ready-made set of wheels (originally made to hold metal file boxes) that fit the Sapien base perfectly.

Then we could move the book-filled vertical bookshelves around easily.

The square metal dolly is available at Amazon for $15; its handy for moving all sorts of things. We keep our giant multi-function printer on it on the floor, so we can roll it next to our desk to hide it, and pull it out when we need it. You can put regular size file cabinets on one or two of the dollies to make them mobile without having to install wheels. Place a board on one a dolly, and it becomes a plant or mobile book stand. We’ve used it to move all sorts of heavy stuff when no one was around to help us…

We wonder if the Sapien people will get the idea and put their shelf on wheels…

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ted muehling and the inspiration journal