Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Building built -in bookshelves!!

For my birthday, I told Aaron & my dad that I would really love built-in bookshelves and a toy box / window seat in the nursery.  Well, they must really love me (and Davis!) because they built them and I am completely in love with them!!  :)  They are going to add a lot of storage to the room & I think they look amazing!  They also added crown molding to the ceiling (not an easy task!), which was an added bonus that I wasn't expecting.  
This was my inspiration that I found on the internet.  So pretty!
And this was a sketch that Laura drew up for us at Home Depot.
Once we had the plans, Aaron & Dad did the building & I got to work (with some a lot of help) on the painting.
This was the room before.  It was definitely my least favorite
room in our house because it just got all the left-overs and there
was nothing special about it, so I wasn't too upset to see it go. 
So we cleared it out & got to painting!
The color we went with was Stonington Gray (HC-170).  It was a
Benjamin Moore color but we had it matched at Home Depot in the
Behr Zero VOC paint.  I love it!  I've tried to do gray paint before
and ended up with blue-ish gray.  But this is exactly what I wanted! 
Then Aaron & Dad got to cutting...
...and building.  This was the frame that everything went on top of.
Then we added kitchen wall cabinets to the bottoms for the cabinets
under the bookshelves.  We got these oak cabinets from Home Depot.
Working on the toy boxes.
The base is done!
Then we got Jake Landreth to move the 2 electrical outlets
and cable line that were behind the new bookshelves.
If you need an electrician, Jake's great!  :) 
Then they got to work on the actual shelves.
Mom was cheerleading.  :)  And she cooked lots of dinners for us!
Putting the shelves in place on top of the cabinets!
Starting to look like my bookshelves!
Aaron Lee helped me paint the molding. 
I wasn't actually expecting them to put up crown molding,
so this made me really excited!!  
Then they had to put edging on all the fronts to make it look better.
I'm one lucky lady & Davis is one lucky baby!
Then Aaron caulked... 
And helped me with a coat of Kilz primer.
We took the doors off to paint them too.
My wonderful paint crew painted with me.  :)
It took 2 coats of white (semi-gloss) paint after the Kilz. 
Putting the doors back on! 
Here are the toy boxes / window seats.
Hello crown molding.  :)
Finished!!
I love, love, love them & can't wait to fill them up with kids books!!  :)
The next nursery project involves a lot of sewing.  My mom & I are planning to sew some throw pillows, cushions for the window seat (above the toy boxes), a crib bumper, & a crib skirt. We'll see how that goes.  :)
Here are some of our fabrics.  
Thanks Aaron & Dad for all the time & energy you guys spent building the bookshelves & toy boxes for me!!  Hopefully Davis won't learn how to climb up them anytime soon...  :)  

Update: To see what the bookshelves look like full of books and decorations, click here

12 comments:

  1. hannah - i am so impressed!! the built-ins are BEAUTIFUL! i am so obsessed with builtins and i love the idea of having them in a nursery! great job!!

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  2. Thanks Nicole!! I was really excited when they agreed to build them & I really love how they turned out. They just look a little naked right now but that's ok. :) I hope you guys are doing well! I love reading your blog!

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  3. Hannah, I absolutely love these!

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    1. Thanks Lynn! I hear y'all are in the house-buying process?! :) That's awesome!

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  4. Hannah these are the greatest things ever!!!! Love, love, love them (and you and Davis!) can't wait to see them in person!

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    1. I really enjoyed getting to talk to you today!! :) And I can't wait to see you & miss Caroline!! Also, funny side note: dinner was ridiculously lame tonight. Ha! Since that chicken I opened when I was talking to you had gone bad, I tried to quickly make some chicken quesadillas but got distracted & they burned. So we ended up just eating sweet potatoes & asparagus. Haha...poor Aaron!

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  5. Hannah! These bookshelves are amazing! I love love love those fabric colors too :) So cute!

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  6. hannah... this is really nice! You have amazing taste and this will be so functional for toys and books! :) I love your little house :)

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  7. Nice job on your built-ins - they're gorgeous! I have this linked to my built-ins post too today, for inspiration!

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  8. Getting ideas and loved your tutorial! Thank you for sharing!!!

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  9. Hi Hannah, thanks for sharing this online ... it's gorgeous!! I was wondering if you could tell me more or less how much the materials cost for that project? I have a 6 yr old daughter and I'd love to try my hand at building this ... looks simple enough, lol, but it may be cheaper to buy something custom made or pay someone to build it after I buy the materials. Would you mind sharing the cost with us?

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  10. I know this post is older, but I was looking up built in diy posts and came across yours. Just wanted to say they turned out beautiful, great job!!

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