I just went back through my archives to link to the
original post about the built-in and realized that we started this project way back in June. So our living room was a torn-apart mess for two months. Nothing like two babies to slow progress down. But we wouldn't have it any other way. {You can see before and in-progress shots
here and
here.}
{To be completely truthful, the living room still is a mess. In the bottom left corner you can see one of our unfinished upholstery projects, and to the right of the fireplace you can see some of the misplaced items from a little rearranging in our bedroom.}
I mentioned in the first post that we were lucky enough to find a credenza on craigslist that was a perfect fit for our niche (perfect once we sawed the counter overhang off and sledge-hammered it into the space anyway). Finding this piece was a huge blessing as it saved us money, time and effort that would have been spent on a piece made from scratch.
Once we got the bottom piece into position and painted it, it was just a matter of getting the shelves in and adding finishing touches. The shelves were cut from cabinet-grade plywood. {We had the guys at Home Depot cut them for us for once. It's amazing the kind of service you get when you have two cute babies with you!} We used 1x2's - drilled directly into studs on all 3 walls - and simply rested the shelves on top. The supporting 1x2's are painted the wall color so they're not obvious from far away. The last thing we did was to add 1x2 strips of poplar to the fronts of the shelves for a nice edge and for additional support.
{Some of my pieces are actually tinted a light pink color, like the bowl in the bottom right. I love the subtle variations in all of the "white-ware".}
I'm not great at styling shelves, and as I worked on this I realized how far off our ratio of books to white-ware was. I'm sure it will be rearranged time and again, but for now it is what it is, and it's finished!
