DIY Built ins

Have you ever had a dream for a space that you dream up for years and you feel like you could never create what you see in your mind? That was me with my living room. I have never loved this space because of the shape – 12ft x 25ft plus an open floor plan connecting to the dining area so it was just a nightmare to try to design – I gave up.

But after 5 years living here and working from home, I *needed* to feel comfort from this space that I was always in. I’m going to walk you through where we started. This was the living room after my very minimal updating – again, I’ve never truly loved it.

Throughout the years I changed different things up – we replaced the carpet but the flooring in the rest of the house was discontinued so I thought it was be cool to put a lighter floor color down….another big mistake I regret but don’t plan on updating just yet. This is the living room the day I decided to take on this project that I’ve been planning for forever.

The paneled wall, the faux wood wrapped beam, the clashing furniture… it was all starting to take a toll haha. So I decided to just jump right in. I started removing all the paneling which took a while day. I ripped the faux wood off the beam. Also the toddler continued to leave his trail lol.

It truly felt like chaos and honestly that keeps me from doing a lot of projects in main living spaces, but it made me push through to get this part done quickly. Once all the paneling was off, I used hardboard to cover up the damage on the wall.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do to hide the seams, but I eventually figured out something that worked for me. I decided to make my built ins out of bookcases that I had used before that were only $40 a piece. The predicament I ran into not using Ikea was I didn’t have an option for the extenders. My ceilings are 9ft tall – these bookcases are 6ft, so what I decided to do was to buy 3 extra and then keep the extras “in half”. I will go over my process in a bit. After assembling all my bookcases, I started to build the supports. These would go between each bookcase – I’d attach the support to the wall and then the bookcase to the support.

After calculating the length of wall I had, I decided to use 4 of the shorter bookcases under the TV and then would flank each side with 3 taller bookcases. This really worked out perfectly for the size of the room. Here you will see how I did each support. For the shorter bookcases, I used 2x4s. For the taller ones, I used 2x6s. I built the supports to be the same depth as the bookcases so that when I trimmed out with my pine boards it would create some depth. But first, I needed to extend all of the taller bookcases up to the ceiling. The pic below will show you what I mean about keeping the 3 extra bookcases “in half”. I essentially just built half of the bookcase and then hoisted it on top of the fully built one and then secured it both to the bookcase below it, but also to the support that I had already taken to the ceiling as well. So all the extensions were nice and sturdy.

And here is after I had extended them all. The next step was just trimming out with primed lumber.

You can’t quite see the difference yet, but adding the front trim pieces made a huge impact!

Once the paint went on is when I could really see the depth it was giving. I will list the trim I used below:
On the shelves: 1×2
Between the tall bookcases: 1×6
Between the short bookcases: 1×4
Bottom baseboard: 1×4
End of tall bookcases: 1×3

I decided to use drywall to patch up the seams on the hardboard. It worked well!

I wasn’t sure which paint I was going to use but I picked up a few samples from Lowe’s. I sat with them for a few days and decided there was one I really loved. I went with the middle one! Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze.

It’s definitely supposed to be more brown, but I think the light in your room will certainly change that. Sometimes it looks dark gray, sometimes green. But the moodiness is a 10!

I stepped back to take this after starting in on the paint because I was so happy with this choice. Not only is it beautiful, it also helped to hide some of the imperfections of the bookcases.

SO HAPPY WITH IT! I am putting a focal wall opposite the built ins, so I snapped this to decide.

And here is the final of the room! I’m still not a fan of the beam haha, but it’s load bearing and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m thinking maybe I’ll color drench? Idk, but for now I love how it turned out.