Chanle, what did you do to finish the shelves you have shown? Just a coat of paint or two?

One coat of Cover Stain primer and two coats of a good semi-gloss off-white paint. The paint's held up surprisingly well after a year or so of use (CDs and books coming and going.)

sorry to take so long. here are a few ideas from my own house.
on the first, I did NOT build the bed itself.





living room in small space next to fireplace, drawer stack plus adjustable shelves.



the girl's room, floor to ceiling one side plus over the top



one end of solarium, 8' high adjustable w/separator



other section of solarium, floor to ceiling adjustable and hidden by wall.
ront

Very nicely done - those shelves sure have to be well made holding all that weight! Can't see a bit of deflection there. Nice clean finish too!

Very nice, ront.

I spent a few hours yesterday sawing wood to size to start building hopefully tonight.

I ended up foregoing the MDF and decided to use sandply instead of oak or birch (I'm painting instead of staining). I couldn't find anyone at the store to tell me what 'sandply' is, however (some sort of plywood - the sheets I got all have a very nice finish, very light grain). So, what is sandply, exactly?

Sandply just has more jayers and is generally a grab bag of species. You'll probably be just fine if you prime. Sandply does however often have a lot more voids than even Home Depot Birch 5 or 7 ply, so if you're using for shelves, you'll probably want to suppor the shelves with cleats on the back and face frames in the front.

Thanks for the info. FWIW, I spent a lot of time cutting yesterday (5 total 4x8 sheets) and I didn't find one void in any cut.

Even better! Good luck and post pics!

Hmm, I'm not thrilled with the paint job I did on these units. The sandply - though quite smooth before painting - seems to grow 'hairs' after painting. I'd bet this doesn't happen with birch or oak plywood - but maybe it does.

I primed and as I started noticing this, I sanded with 400 grit sand paper before painting but still, it's a bit annoying.

I assume you used water base paint! You should wipe the raw wood with a damp sponge and allow the wood to dry, then sand with 120 grit sandpaper to knock down the hairs, then use water base..