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Customizing the LEGO Creator Bookshop

The #10270 LEGO Creator Bookshop – the latest in the LEGO Modular Building series – was released back in January, and I finally had time to tinker with it and add some upgrades. I figured I share what I have done, as it may give you some ideas for your own customization.

LEGO CREATOR BOOKSHOP OVERVIEW

But first, let’s start with some general thoughts on the set. The #10270 LEGO Creator Bookshop is the second in the LEGO Modular Building series with a split design (the first one was the #10218 LEGO Creator Pet Shop from 2011). This means that the 32×32 stud footprint is split into two sections, with two different buildings on two 16×32 baseplates. This makes the set exceptionally practical, as the two buildings can be put on either side of each other, or could be used next to other buildings by themselves.

Although the split layout is a huge plus, I feel that the #10270 LEGO Creator Bookshop is not as versatile as the #10218 LEGO Creator Pet Shop was. This is because the teal color of the apartment side is a bit too strong and can clash with some of the other buildings. So, you have to be a bit more thoughtful when placing it on your street. Another issue with the apartment is that it’s unusually short. Again, this limits where it can be placed in the layout. If you have a street with taller buildings, it might be worth getting a second set and double up the floors. This was even suggested in the official designer-video.

While the apartment side of the set can be a bit troublesome for the above-mentioned reasons, the bookshop first pretty much anywhere. It has a simple and elegant design, muted colors, and the same height as many of the other LEGO Modular Buildings. It can fit pretty much anywhere.

When the set was first revealed, I instantly liked the bookshop. I appreciated the design, the colors, and the subject, and I could see the potential for customization. I wasn’t too sure about the apartment though. I felt the colors were a bit too bold, and the building was too short. After getting the set, I can say that the bookshop turned out as I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised by the apartment. It’s a much more interesting build than the bookshop, the interior is amazing, and I fell in love with the colors. It’s a delightful little building that brightens up my day every time I look at it.

Speaking of interiors, the bookshop has practically none. It’s a bookshop with a single book in it, and a couple of very messy bookshelves that I didn’t like at all, and a giant checkout counter that only takes up valuable space. The second floor has a big recliner that also just takes up space, and the third floor is an apartment that didn’t make any sense to be there. However, the layout is wonderful. There is good size space at the bottom floor for more shelves, there is a lovely mezzanine between the first and second floors (reminiscent of old bookstores), and the second and third floors also have good size space (once you throw all the furniture out). Plenty of room for customization!

The apartment side of the set is actually much more developed. There is a crawlspace below the first floor. There is not much in here besides a bench and a ladder, but it could be customized. The crawlspace is not quite a minifig’s height, so they will have to hunch over to do anything. But anyway, the space has potential.

The living room/dining room combo on the first floor is very nice. And the bedroom on the third floor is lovely! It has the biggest bed in any of the LEGO Modular Buildings, and it’s quite pretty. Strangely, the apartment has no kitchen and no bathroom. I haven’t done this yet, but there is room for a small bathroom under the stairs between the first and second floors. Right now, there is a staircase there to go down to the crawlspace, but this could be blocked off and put a toilet and sink in there. The crawlspace has a second entrance from the back, so it’s not like minifigs won’t be able to access it.

Another feature I would like to mention that I really like in this set is that both the apartment side and the bookshop side has a split roof. Meaning, that you don’t have to remove the whole roof to access the interior. Instead, the back section and wall can be lifted off to access the inside. I especially like this feature on the apartment side, as it also gives access to the floor below. None of the other LEGO Modular Buildings have this type of access, but I think it works great and provide more options for play and display.

CUSTOMIZING THE LEGO CREATOR BOOKSHOP

Now, let’s talk about customization. On the apartment side, I didn’t do much on the inside, as everything is already so nice. Although I’m considering doing the bathroom conversion I mentioned above, and will probably put some “junk” in the crawlspace like boxes and forgotten items. And I did make two structural changes to the building. I didn’t like how the dome of the bay window was so small and was placed underneath an arch. I felt it was out of proportion. So, I pulled the dome further out, enlarged it, and closed the space behind it.

The other change I made is related to a pet peeve of mine. When there is a fireplace on a floor and chimney on top of the building, but there is no indication of a chimney flue in between them. Here, we have a fireplace on the first floor, and a chimney crown and cap on the roof correctly aligned with the fireplace, but in the bedroom directly over the fireplace there is no sign of the flue going through. As there is no room to put a flue outside or the inside (with that enormous bed in the way), I just added a textured 1×4 stud section to the wall to indicate the passage of the flue, and connected it through the rafters to the chimney top via a couple of 2×2 inverted slopes. I hope it’s acceptable to the fire department.

For the bookshop, I gutted out the inside as I didn’t like any of it and started anew. At the front of the building I replaced the small shelf with cheap books with a little bit better one. I should also mention that I took out an entire section from the birch tree. While I like the tree, I felt it was too tall. It was much taller than any of the other trees on my street, it had a tendency to topple over, and it made it hard to access the floors. In case you want to do this, the tree comes in sections, so it’s super easy to just remove a chunk.

On the first floor, the only thing I kept was the floor tiles, as I really liked the colors. Then I did some research on old bookstores and found some lovely pictures like the ones below (by the way, these pictures are apparently puzzles).

As we only have a 14×14 stud space to work with, I kept the bookshelves as thin as possible to be able to cram in as much as possible. I was also able to add an arch and a bookshelf with ladders – features that I really liked from the pictures.

As I mentioned above, I love the mezzanine that was built into the set, so I kept that as it is for the most part. And because it was so wide, I was able to add in a table and a couple of chairs.

The second floor also got more bookshelves and tables, and I took advantage of that nice printed 1×8 tile with Hans Christian Andersen’s name printed on it, which came from another set. I also added a printed tile in the middle of the carpet, which was already there. The grandfather clock is pet as is because it’s already awesome.

On the third floor, I took out the apartment, tiled and carpeted the floor, and made it into a children’s bookshop and reading room. The kids just going to have to be careful on those stairs!

LEGO CREATOR BOOKSHOP FINAL THOUGHTS

All in all this was a fun project. I enjoy modifying LEGO Modular Buildings, especially the interiors. I don’t have all the Modulars as I don’t like them all, but if the facade is nice and I feel like I can do something with the inside, I will get them and customize them. Some of the smaller Modulars like this one is especially great for customization as you don’t need that many pieces to make even significant changes.

The currently available LEGO Modular Buildings include the #10255 LEGO Creator Assembly Square, the #10260 LEGO Creator Downtown Diner, the #10264 LEGO Creator Corner Garage, and the #10270 LEGO Creator Bookshop. All of them are nice looking sets already, and have potential for further customization. You can find them at the LEGO Creator section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Do you have the LEGO Creator Bookshop already? How do you like it? Have you done any modifications to it? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

{ 34 comments… add one }
  • Rob May 25, 2020, 11:05 AM

    I wanted to say I think you’ve done awesome work, especially with the bookstore! That looks like a lot of fun to go inside and the atmosphere is completely changed from the original model. I’d love to have what you’ve put together, but by and large I’m too lazy to order that many parts to do so. Kinda wish you had input in the model’s creation, admin! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    On a side note, I came sooooo close to getting the Corner Garage, but I picked the wrong day to visit the Lego store as it was one of the days they were using to de-virus the place and the next day they sold out of both the Garage and this Bookshelf model. *sad eyes* Probably be months before they can be bought again.

    Well, tough times ya know! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    • Thita (admin) May 25, 2020, 9:39 PM

      Rob, sorry to hear you couldn’t get those Modulars this time, but I’m sure they will be back. I actually didn’t have to buy anything to modify the Book Shop as it uses pretty simple parts and I had them already. I was even thinking that it’s so nice that I now have enough LEGO that I can do modifications like this without having to order and wait for a bunch of pieces. And my collection is really not that big compared to others. ๐Ÿ˜€

  • Undercover Afol May 25, 2020, 11:30 AM

    Oh, my, gosh. I love this so much. Especially the children’s reading room and the arch with the high bookshelves. Great job!

  • brickmaster May 25, 2020, 12:21 PM

    I love the ladders and the arch on the first floor! Great use of the small space!

  • DavidH May 25, 2020, 12:25 PM

    I agree. Excellent use of the small space. It looks so much more like a proper book shop. I love the cramped feel of it.

  • yoladiel May 25, 2020, 12:38 PM

    This is how the set should have been done in the first place! The original hardly has any books. It was a great idea to turn the third floor into a reading room. Like others said, I really like the arch and ladders.

  • gid617 May 25, 2020, 12:52 PM

    This needed a little love inside and it looks great now. I especially like the children’s reading room upstairs.
    I kinda want to turn this into a pair of bookends if I end up getting it. ๐Ÿ˜€

  • Ian May 25, 2020, 1:44 PM

    Okay, I’m going to have to do this. I found the bookshop a little boring, but I just changed my mind. Thanks, admin! ๐Ÿ˜€

  • Legostuff14 May 25, 2020, 2:12 PM

    Now that’s what a book shop should look like. With my set I added the spell books from Harry Potter when we got those books a number of years ago in various Harry potter sets . The townhouse I’ve decided to have Sherlock Holmes and Watson living there ( they each came in a mini figure series. Well Watson was actually the businessman but I made him up to be Watson.). The Creator set townhouse and Pet Shop. The townhouse I add added Furniture to it and a family is living in there now. I made very top floor into two bedrooms.

  • Emmet May 25, 2020, 2:28 PM

    I love this so much. The arch is especially effective. And the storytime with the babies and kids sitting around is adorable. Question. Where did you get those short bendable legs?

  • Emperor P. May 25, 2020, 4:39 PM

    This has so many great details. I have been looking over the pictures over and over. Great job! I love the cramped feeling of old bookstores.

  • mr. marmelade May 25, 2020, 4:48 PM

    You nailed this one, admin. So much better than the original. And I appreciate that you fixed the chimney. It’s a pet peeve of mine too.

    • Thita (admin) May 25, 2020, 9:33 PM

      Haha! Yeah, the mystery of the missing chimney always bothers me and I have to fix it. ๐Ÿ˜€

  • The Other Mark May 25, 2020, 7:25 PM

    This is amazing. It should have been the real set. I have a question about the children’s bookshelf. I’m having trouble figuring out what part you used. Are those the 2×3 cabinets? But then how did you fit the plates inside of it standing up?

    • Thita (admin) May 25, 2020, 9:32 PM

      Good notice! I didn’t use the cabinets because as you said, the 1×2 plates and tiles cannot be stacked inside. Instead, I used two 2×6 plates to create the top and bottom of the cabinet, and three 1×2 plates with rails vertically to create the walls. The “books” are simply attached to these plates with rails to make it look like they are standing up on the shelf. ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Henry May 25, 2020, 10:05 PM

    This is so awesome. I liked how you used the painting as inspiration for the wall. It turned out perfect. I was thinking that I will have to get a second set to make it like a proper bookstore, but I like your ideas better.

  • Leo May 26, 2020, 2:52 AM

    I thought this set was an incredible dissapointment and strongly dislike the boring, unimaginitive design of it. The teal is nice, but that’s about it.

  • E.Lephant May 26, 2020, 12:17 PM

    This is a fantastic mod. Especially in such a small space. Thanks for sharing

  • Jenna April 11, 2021, 1:13 PM

    Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and taking the time to write this up. I hope you don’t mind, but I copied what you did for my bookstore. The original looked funny to me: a bookstore with barely any books to sell? The way you redid the interior has made this from a boring set into my favorite one. I canot thank you enough for sharing your creativity. Thank you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Thita (admin) April 11, 2021, 1:52 PM

      Jenna, I’m glad the alterations I did inspired you to make your own. Happy building and thanks for sharing! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • David December 10, 2021, 10:54 PM

    Hi Thita!
    Hopefully you are still checking this blog page. I love how you modified the bookshop. I have that lego set, but haven’t built the bookshop half (only the teal townhouse). Do you have a part list for the changes you made to the bookshop? You wouldn’t happen to have instructions too (though I could piece it together from the photos ๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

  • Red January 11, 2022, 11:26 AM

    My goodness, this much looked like in the Notting Hill film. All you need is you customized your figures and it will be a set.

  • sass January 23, 2022, 1:14 AM

    can you please send a list of all of the pieces that you would need to create the first floor of the bookstore?

    • Thita (admin) January 23, 2022, 2:41 PM

      This is a custom project, and I don’t really have a list of parts that I used for the modifications. However, if you’re not sure about something, feel free to ask and I can let you know what piece it is. ๐Ÿ™‚

      • James May 21, 2023, 4:44 AM

        Hi Thita
        Amazing work, definitely how the bookshop should of been.

        How did you make the bookshelves on the ground floor? I assume lots of 1x plates, just thinking about the middle shelves.

        Did you ever think about changing the outside of the bookshop? Compared to some of the other modular buildings it is very flat and plain.

        Thanks
        James

        • Thita (admin) May 21, 2023, 4:44 PM

          Thank you, James. I had to keep the bookshelves as streamlined as possible because of the lack of space, but yeah, they are just stacked 1×2 plates attached sideways to a brick with studs on the side and sitting on top of a flat tile. Everything is well-connected and sturdy.

          I personally like the outside of the building. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s next to that cute and ornate little apartment, so I feel they balance each other nicely. I did make the tree a bit shorter but bushier with more leaves, so that adds some visual interest.

  • sass January 24, 2022, 7:40 PM

    ok, thanks!

  • Alex September 25, 2023, 3:05 PM

    Hello, great one, is there a moc instructions somewhere that I can buy? Would like to get some inspirations

    • Thita (admin) September 25, 2023, 9:34 PM

      Hey, Alex, I have no patience for making instructions, but if you have any questions feel free to ask. ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Alex September 26, 2023, 8:47 AM

        Hi, thanks for your reply, ok no problem, im just starting again LEGO so I don’t know where to start to have the same interior as you

        • Thita (admin) September 26, 2023, 8:36 PM

          Alex, the best way to go about custom projects is to get inspiration from others, then look at the pieces you have, add your own ideas, and make the project truly yours. Customizing is fun! ๐Ÿ™‚

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