Anchoredhope, that's pretty much what I did. Had some book cases made years ago for my FLorida house with open shelves on the top side. Those tops are now in my garage storing paint and whatever else. The bottoms I took to make my cutting table. They have doors and 2 shelves inside each. I added a piece of phywood 4' x 8' on top, then added brackets about halfway down on the back sides of the shelving units to add another shelf, again 4 x 8. So I now have storage on the floor under the middle shelving, storage on the middle shelving which is where I keep all my totes of scrapes on one side, the other side holds my rolls of stabilizers and scrap backings. Found a company that could make me a cutting mat at 4 x 8. This company I'm afraid has closed down from what I gather though. I added some screws on the sides of the end sections to hold my longer rulers. The bookcase ends holds my quilting patterns on one end and my embroidery patterns/books on the other end.