Since the glass panel is sandwiched between the two walls of each hinge and the hinges themselves take up 1mm of space on the top and bottom and the side the glass doors need to be sufficiently smaller in length and width than the inset dimensions of the cabinet being too long will mean the glass doors will not fit in and will result in another visit to the glass shop and being too small.
How to add a glass door to a bookcase.
Measure your bookshelf to ascertain the length and width of the bookshelf doors that needs to be installed.
You can ignore the hole on the face of of the bookcase in the picture below.
Each door is 58 5 x 14 on this ikea shelf.
Put on the knob handle of your choice.
Then line up your door and screw the hinge to it.
Allow 1 8 inch between the two doors where they come together in the center.
Step 2 buy the wood.
Cut 1 4 plywood to cover the portion of shelves you want to cover.
Shut the door and check to make sure the door isn t too close to the bookcase frame.
Use the cordless gun and 5 8 inch screws to attach the hinges on the doors to the bookcase.
Buy the wood which will act as the panel for the glass bookshelf door based on the measurement above.
Line up the bookcase so there is a 1 4 overhang on the top and attach the top screw of the top hinge into your spacer then the top screw of the bottom hinge.
I was just going to add the doors and leave it at that but a lot of built ins like these are actually base cabinets with shallower bookcases set on top of them creating a ledge where they meet see my pinterest board on bookcase and built in inspirations here i like that little detail so i pondered how to modify the bookcases and eventually decided to use my jigsaw to cut mdf trim like this.
Introduce a recess or an indentation on the wood that you purchased.
Step 3 making a recess.
You can also have your plywood cut at home depot or lowes.
I covered just the center shelves so that when i slid the doors out to access the area in the middle the angle bar would support the door.