SO follow me here, but only if you are interested in my talking myself through this project. Of course, any input is welcome. But not required.

Section One - What space is available?

I’m sitting here pondering the book shelving situation. I am fortunate to have just moved to a new house in horse farm country in Pennsylvania. I have just painted one room something close to Benjamin and Moore Black Forest Green. I plan to have a carpenter build built-in bookcases of dark wood, and smh excited for this to be a future library, henceforth to be called (at least in our house) The Library. (As an aside, we also have an adjacent room lightheartedly termed "The Museum" to house ceramics, curios, and art books.)
I also have in my office a nice bookcase accommodating 32 shelf feet.
Then there is the Book Nook. This is a dead end area of the house (it leads nowhere and has no apparent other use) whose only function is to house books and bookshelves. This can accommodate all the overflow after The Library, The Museum, and the office are filled.
Previous to the move, I had 4800 books, as indicated by LibraryThing where all are cataloged. I managed to deaccession 600 before we left, mostly by donation.
The general approximation is 11-12 books per shelf foot.
Quantitatively, and leaving room for display items and not just books in the main areas, I will use 10 books per shelf-feet overall, and 7 shelves per book case for the most part.
This yields the following:

office: 32 shelf-feet x 10 = 320 books

The Library (converted to decimals):
   
6.67 feet x 7 —>  46.7 shelf feet = 467 book
2x7 ——-—>    14 shelf feet.      140 books
40 x 7 x 2 —>  56 shelf feet.     560 books
1167 total in The Library, lets subtract for objects in the cases and go with 950 books.

The Museum:  Will house about 300 art books

I think we will add a single bookshelf in the bedroom, intended for some poetry, some quiet books, stuff to open during insomnia moments. Estimate 24 shelf feet, or 240 books. And 77 cookbooks go somewhere near the kitchen.


So that’s 950 + 320 + 300 + 240 + 77 cookbooks = , so 1900 out of 4200, and  the Book Nook will host 2300.
There will be no spaces on the Nook shelves, so 2300/12 books per shelf foot means the nook requires almost 200 shelf feet. Definitely want extra shelving to accommodate growth, even as I aspire to appropriate deaccessioning in the future. So lets call it 3000 books in the Book Nook, to be indulgent cause why not?
3000 books = 3000/(12 books/ ft x 7 shelves per case) = 36 linear feet required


The Nook itself has 22 linear feet, and the hallway leading to it contains another 17.
So it looks like a full stacks will require the Nook plus 14 of the 17 feet of hallway, probably 7 feet on each side of hall, leaving 1.5 feet near hall entry free on both sides.

I can now visualize this.

Section Two - which books go where?

This is what I started with in my thoughts. What books do I want where? Probably this will involve decisions made on the spot during unboxing.
But using my LibraryThing tags, I can make a few approximations. Only nice condition hardbacks in The Library.

I will use at least these in The Library:
Scientist biography
Paleoanthropology and prehistory, as I will also display my collection of hominin evolution skull replicas in here. And a few ancient containers.
History of Science
Ancient history, to loosely and chronologically transition from paleoanthropology and prehistory
Ideas (partial)
Some TBR
Some Memoir
Some history of Ideas
Unexpected Visual Treasures
Maybe natural history and interesting science books
Maybe complete  hardcover works of CJC and KSR? Maybe other classics of SF? Other beloved fiction books?

In my office
On writing
More core SF books?
Some professional stuff
Some history
Some TBR
Some Memoir
Some Int. Hist.

Book Nook
The rest of the SF and everything else

That’s all I got. Maybe the rest will come to me during the process. Thanks to anyone who read through this whole thing