The Best IKEA Comic Storage Solution
Say goodbye to the Kallax: this is better.
THE LARGELY SKIPPABLE INTRO
As a comic collector who prefers single issues over trades and collections, I’ve been blessed* with a huge and constantly growing number of books. At last count I had around 4,000 issues, and that’s after a two year selling spree. Storage has - it’s fair to say - always been an issue.
When I first dipped my toes into the hobby, in the very early 90s, I displayed my first comics face out on a shelf, each one its own treasure. When I bought my first comic box, I kept it by my bed so that I could reach in and grab an issue to read without even getting up. But as my collection ballooned, things became slightly harder to manage. I stacked boxes on top of each other against the wall. I slid them under the bed. I kept them in other rooms of the house, in cupboards and wardrobes and on bookcases. I did my best to minimise the impact on the living space, but I’d constantly have boxes all over the place, to the occasional consternation (but rarely complaint) of my cohabiters, all of whom - I’m lucky to say - accepted that this was just part of life with a comics enthusiast.
But eventually, I bought my own house, and I was determined to have a proper place to keep my comics so that no-one else in the house would be burdened by the inconveniences of my hobby. After a lot of research - and a lot of people saying that they put their boxes in a KALLAX unit, which causes me actual psychological pain - this is the system I came up with. I’m sharing it here in the hope that other collectors can benefit.
WHY THIS IS THE BEST COMICS STORAGE SOLUTION
Once assembled, the unit you will construct…
Is suitable for collections ranging from a few hundred to over 5,000 comics
Gives you space to open a comic box without fully removing it from the shelf
Allows you to slide comic boxes on and off the shelves easily
Supports the weight of thousands of comics without bending or warping
Keeps your boxes off the floor, reducing the chance of pest infestation
Is easy to reconfigure, repair or expand
Costs very little in comparison to other storage units
Will act as passable fuel source in the event of societal collapse**
I present: the (mostly) perfect IKEA comic storage solution.
WHAT YOU NEED
The product this storage system is based on is called IVAR. These are IKEA’s solid pine modular shelving units, and they happen to be the ideal depth for holding short boxes*** - as long as you buy the correct size components. This cannot be overstated because they come in various different sizes. Allow me to take out the guesswork.
The most basic solution is one IVAR shelving unit, which comprises the following:
2 x IVAR Side Unit (50 x 226cm / 20 x 89 inches) [ UK | US ]
5 x IVAR Shelf (83 x 50cm / 33 x 20 inches) [ UK | US ]
1 x OBSERVATÖR metal brace (100cm / 39 inches) [ UK | US ]
This will allow you to construct a unit with five shelves, each shelf wide enough to hold three short boxes side by side with ample room for manoeuvre****. That’s up to 15 boxes per unit*****.
Price-wise, all of this costs just £82 in the UK ($120 in the US - pre-tax I assume) which is pretty good for something that should last decades, if properly cared for. Note that you may want to factor in the price of short boxes if you don’t already have any.
(For clarity, I don’t get any commission from these links, I’m just doing it to ensure that there’s no confusion over which products we’re talking about.)
HOW TO ASSEMBLE AN IVAR FOR COMIC STORAGE
I’m not going to go through the whole construction process (that’s IKEA’s job******) but suffice to say, these are my tips for putting the shelves together:
Fit the top and bottom shelves first. The side units contain pre-drilled holes for the shelf pegs. This system needs a shelf at the very top and one slightly off the bottom. The lower shelf pegs should be in the third hole from the bottom of the side unit, flush with the lowest of the horizontal brackets.
You can place an empty box on the bottom shelf once it’s installed so that you can see how much space you need to get the lid off while leaving it in place. On my unit, the gap between shelves is about 39.5cm (15.5 inches) but more usefully: if you put a peg in the third hole from the bottom then every 13th hole above that, this will space out the five shelves perfectly.
It’s going to seem wobbly at first, but the all-important OBSERVATÖR brace will change all that. This gets screwed into the side units at four points in an “X” shape on the back of the unit and transforms it completely*******. This is the only bit of the process you can screw up because you pick where to put the bracket. I screwed the four corners in very loosely at first to make sure I was happy with where it would end up, about halfway up the unit.
BUT I HAVE MORE BOXES THAN THAT!
This is where the genius of the IVAR’s modular design comes in, because to expand the shelving you can simply buy 5 more shelves and one additional side unit. This gives you storage space for up to another 15 boxes. You don’t need another bracket, but IKEA recommends placing one on every other unit so if you expand again, you’ll want one then.
This unit is what I built, and you can see from my photo below, it holds a lot of boxes, plus some additional junk. I probably need to expand my unit again because for reasons I’ll probably go into in future I’ve currently got someone else’s boxes in my house too, but suffice to say, more storage space is needed.
WHAT ARE THE DOWNSIDES?
There are a few issues that I think it’s fair to make you aware of that might influence your purchase of this as comics shelving:
These shelves need a fair amount of assembly. You CAN do it by yourself but it’s a lot easier with two people. If you have a physical impairment, you will likely need significant assistance.
At first they will absolutely reek of pine. This isn’t unpleasant in itself, but it did (at least initially) irritate my nose quite a lot since I also work in the room they’re stored in. The smell dissipated after a couple of months and since then it hasn’t been a problem.
The aesthetics are fairly… rustic. Personally I enjoy the natural wood look, but I appreciate some of us are out there living ultra-modern lives. That said, since the components are all plain wood you could easily stain or paint them to match whatever else you’ve got going on. If you want to go an extra step, the IVAR system has doors, corner shelves, cabinets - you can add whatever you like to make them look fancier or, if you prefer, hide the boxes from sight entirely.
And that’s all! I hope this guide was useful. Certainly, it’s the guide I wish I’d found when I was putting the system together. If you have any questions, please get in touch, and note that I take no responsibility for any action you take from following this advice. If you end up tripling the size of your collection because you have the space, that’s on you.
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FOOTNOTES
* Or cursed?
** Fingers crossed everyone! (but which way?)
*** Yes, shortboxes. If you’re wedded to the idea of longboxes then I cannot help you, or your future spinal problems.
**** In case it isn’t clear, I am British and this is how we spell it. I blame the Normans.
***** Personally I don’t put boxes on the very top shelf, but if you’re taller/stronger/less afraid of death than me then there’s no reason you couldn’t.
****** Those instruction manuals are basically comics so we should be pretty good at following them.
******* Well not completely, but it did surprise me how solid it became afterwards.
******** One very cheap comic
[ENDS]