DIY Office built-ins
I’ve been working from home since 2020, and for the first 2 years of my time home my “office” was just a small desk we kept in the corner of the living room. It worked, but it was hard for me to separate work and home life so we decided we would turn our rarely-used eat-in dining room into my home office. That would require us to do a few things to the room first, being that it had 2 doors and was a “walkthrough” room. There was a main entrance from the front entryway, but also one into the kitchen. So we closed up the door leading to the kitchen and got to work on the rest of the space. Below I will walk you through what all I did in this space!
One thing I knew I needed in this space was built-in bookshelves. I don’t live near an IKEA, so I wasn’t able to just run out and grab some of the bookcases you see popular DIYs done out of theirs. So I ran up the road to Target and grabbed 4 of the Room Essential Bookcases and they ended up working perfectly!
In order to make the Bookcases looked “built-in”, I needed to remove some of the wainscoting and molding that already existed in this room. In order to do that, I used my oscillating tool to make precise cuts and then remove cleanly.
Once the Bookcases were built, I realized quickly that I wanted them to be taller. I got to work measuring the perimeter of the Bookcases and then creating a 12 inch base out of 2x4s.
Another important step to making them look custom is framing out the Bookcases. I used 1×4’s alone the outside and middle pieces, and 1×2’s along the shelves. I used my Brad nailer to attach them.
Once I got everything painted in my chosen color, Behr Broadway, I realized I needed to do something to contrast the Bookcases from the rest of the room. I found these peel and stick floor panels at Lowe’s for less than $2 each and it turned out amazingly.
I used my Brad nailer to attach them to the wall.
And this is when everything was finally coming together! I was so obsessed with how it was looking.
Another big part of this project was installing this French door. When the is was the dining room, this doorway was open with no door. So I had to frame out and drywall the door frame and then I installed this antique door that was gifted to me. I painted it Behr Broadway to match the rest of the room.
A year and a half later I’m still loving this space just as much. I’m really happy with the Target bookcases and it saved me a ton of money on this project. Let me know if you have any questions below! Hopefully this has some inspo for you if you’re looking to DIY your own built-ins!
