Bookcases With Lights: Eight Amish Designs That Show Off Your Collection

A bookcase with lights solves a problem most shelving creates. Books sit in shadow, the spines on the bottom shelf go unread, and a display of pottery or family photos loses its depth as the sun drops. Adding lighting inside the case fixes the room without adding a lamp or running a cord across the floor. The glow sits where your things are, so first editions, milk glass, and travel souvenirs read clearly from across the room and stay just as visible at night. Pieces kept behind glass doors gain the most, since the light turns an enclosed cabinet into a small gallery./p>

Countryside Amish Furniture builds every piece below to order, with real Amish artisans cutting and joining each bookcase by hand and a US-based team in Arthur, Illinois to help you spec it. Because each unit is made from scratch, the lighting is wired into the cabinet during the build itself. You choose the wood, the stain, and the size to fit the room. Some of these designs follow the classic barrister design with stacking glass-front sections; others are tall display towers or narrow bookcases meant to slip into a quiet corner. All eight come with the light built in.

Some of Our Favorite Bookcases With Built-In Lights

Choosing Wood and Finish for Shelves With Built-In Lighting

Every made-to-order bookcase here lets you choose from solid North American hardwoods, including oak, brown maple, cherry, quartersawn white oak, hickory, and walnut. Plus, we offer a full rainbow of staining options.

Lighter woods and finishes bounce the built-in light around the interior, which keeps a deep cabinet from going dim toward the back. Darker stains absorb more of it, so the light pools on the objects themselves and the shelving recedes, a good choice when the collection should be the only thing you notice.

A few of these light-up bookcases—like the Scotland and the Agoura Hills—come in rough sawn maple, where the saw texture catches the light at an angle and adds shadow the smoother species do not.

Another tip? If you want a piece that climbs and reaches toward seven feet, a tall case in a paler finish keeps the upper shelves from disappearing into the dark.

How to Display Items on a Lighted Bookcase

A built-in light rewards a little planning. The notes below apply to the eight bookcases above and to any other lit piece in our solid wood bookcase lineup, and they cover the spacing and placement that make the difference between a display that glows and one that just looks bright.

• Leave headroom between the light and the objects. Most of these bookcases light from the top of each section, so the brightest zone is the few inches directly beneath the fixture. Keep the tallest items 2 to 3 inches short of the light so they are washed by the light instead of blocking it and casting the shelf below into shadow. On adjustable shelves, lower the shelf to open up that clearance.

• Light the things worth lighting, and leave gaps. A shelf packed wall to wall looks like a solid mass under even light. Group objects in odd numbers with clear space between groups so the light can describe each shape. Set the pieces with the most depth, like glass, pottery, and polished wood, nearest the front edge of the shelf, where the light rakes across them and brings out the form.

• Place the bookcase to control glare and heat. Position a lit, glass-front bookcase so a window or overhead fixture is not reflecting straight back at the viewer; an angle off the main sightline, or a wall perpendicular to the window, kills the worst glare. The LED and touch systems used here run cool, so heat is not a concern for books or photographs, but keep the units off a wall that bakes in direct afternoon sun, which fades spines and finishes regardless of the interior light. For shelf-by-shelf collections, the stacking barrister bookcases let you switch a single lit section on instead of the whole tower.

Trust Amish Woodworkers to Craft Your Favorite Bookcase

Countryside Amish Furniture treats a bookcase as a future heirloom meant to outlive the room it starts in. Every piece on this list is hand-built by Amish woodworkers from solid North American hardwood, so the shelves carry a full load of books for decades without sagging. Techniques include mortise and tenon where the frames meet, dovetailed drawers, and a catalyzed conversion varnish that stands up to handling and cleaning.

That construction is what lets these bookcases with lighting hold weight and stay square year after year. After all, a lit display only works if the shelving behind it is sound, and a solid hardwood case keeps its shelves level and its doors aligned long after the books have been rearranged a dozen times.

Wood samples are available by mail so you can see the species and stain in your own light before anything is built, and each piece is made to order over a typical window of 14 to 18 weeks.