Bedroom Built-ins {Part 1}

I am beyond thrilled to be writing this post because it means I am finished with this project!!

Last Fall we finished our basement and moved our older boys down there.

The bedrooms down there are big!

We thought that adding built-ins would help take up a little space while also being functional.

This was the first big project I've tackled by myself, and I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

I will be breaking up the details and steps into 2 separate blog posts.

This first post will mainly cover the details for the tall bookcase/shelves, the second post will be for the window seat with cupboards, and the floating desk.

I did go back and forth between the different sections because I needed things to dry, or ran out of some supplies but still wanted to get other things done, so it might be a little all over the place, but stay with me here!
Here's what my son's room looked like before I started.
Tall ceilings and a big wall.
One thing I noticed right away is that the window isn't centered.
I was originally going to do a bookcase on each side of the window, but it would be extremely noticeable that one was much wider than the other, and that would drive me nuts.
I also thought it might be too overwhelming and make the room seem smaller or cluttered.
My husband is the one that came up with the idea for the desk and I think it works perfectly because it leaves a lot of open space while still being functional.

The first thing I did was build a base for the tall bookcase.
I just used a 2x4, cut it into the length I needed, and used screws to attach them together to make a kind of box shape.
The shelves are 11.75" deep, but I only made the base 10" deep because I wanted the shelves to have a bit of an overhang, and I was going to put trim in front of the base to give it a more finished look.

I purchased 1x2 pieces of wood (that were already primed white) from The Home Depot and made a '3-sided box' that I attached to the walls with my nail gun.

I used a stud finder to shoot a majority of the nails into studs behind the drywall.

These are the bases for the shelves to sit on.

There is 18" between the shelves and they stick out 11.75". 

There was a 3" gap between the top 'shelf' and the ceiling.
I liked the look of that because I planned on that looking like the top of the inside of a bookcase. I would close that up later on.

I found this Melamine Board at The Home Depot and used it as the side of the bookcase.

It is 97" x 15.75"

So the back of the bookcase is actually just the wall, and the right side of the bookcase is just the wall as well. Only one side of the bookcase has a piece of wood.

I really liked this board because it had a smooth finish and a rounded edge at the front.

Sitting on the 2x4 base I made, the board went all the way to the top 'shelf'

I used a nail gun to attach the board to the 'arms' of the shelf bases.

Here's just a different angle for you.

I cut shelves to fit right in over the base.

This is where you can see that the 2x4 base sits back a little bit further than the where the shelf comes out, again, I wanted it that way so I could put trim on the front of the 2x4.

I used a nail gun to secure the shelf to the base.

I then went through and added putty filler to all the nail holes.

The wall isn't completely straight, so the shelf didn't sit flush against it.
I wanted everything to look clean and seamless, so I then used the putty filler to fill in along the edge of the shelf where it meets the wall.

This is what it looked like before it was dry.

We had some leftover pieces of trim from finishing our basement, so I used those scrap pieces to cover the 2x4 that was under the bookcase.

I then added the remaining shelves and placed 1x2's in front of both sides of the bookcase.
I feel like this kind of gave it a cleaner, finished look.
I used a nail gun to secure each shelf to the the base and the 1x2's on the front of the bookcase.

I then went through and used putty filler along all the seams, the shelves, the shelf bases, everything.
These pictures show you the filling in only done half way across so you can see the difference it makes.

 Next I made the base for the window seat.
Again, I just used some 2x4's and I actually attached them to the back wall with screws, and the side of the base that is under the bookcase.

 I cut a 2x4 to go on the inside of the box (just to give some extra support to the piece of wood that would go across).
I actually did two of those.

I actually continued working on the window seat part for the next while.
When I did come back to the bookcase it was to start painting the exposed walls. I wanted to paint the walls so it looked like the bookcase had 3 sides that looked the same.

I also painted the 1x2 pieces of wood under the shelves (the shelf bases) because they were only primed white.
I ended up needing to do two coats of paint to cover the walls properly and evenly.
That's all I'll show for now! I'll hopefully be able to get the next post up, with the window seat and desk, this next week.
Thanks for stopping by!