Built-In or Not to Built-In

February 10th, 2013

Hey guys!  Hope your weekend was enjoyable!  We played it low key around here and didn’t do too much.  We were hoping to get some major snow from Nemo like our friends up North, but we only ended up with a little more than a dusting.  This will be the second winter in a row that we haven’t gotten any significant snowfall.  Total bummer.  Our daughter is two and so far has not experienced a sleigh ride!  If you recall, I even bought a snow blower in the fall of 2011.  Wonder when I’ll get to use it.

In other more exciting news, Lisa and I have made some project decisions.  We will not be constructing built-ins for our daughter’s new bedroom.  Womp Womp.  Here’s the thing, if we have a girl in April, we may put the two of them together in this room eventually.  We’re not sure how the built-ins would play with two twin beds in there.  So, in the meantime, we’re deferring the built-ins in her room.

Now for the good news.  We will be making built-ins for our sitting room!!  Woohoo!!  We’re going to be adding a tall wall unit adjacent to our sitting room couch.  It will be on the wall next to the pillar.

sitting room

We both really liked this instagram from Ana White.  We’ll probably make something very similar to one of the side pieces (not the center TV section).  Dimensionally, we’ll adapt it to take up most of the wall.

ana white built-in

It should be pretty straight forward.  We may also make the bottom cabinets a little taller to accommodate our daughter’s toys.  Not quite as tall as this next photo of built-ins, but pretty close.  We’ll probably paint them white as well.

built in bookcase and cabinets

(via Houzz.com)

While we’re at it, we need a TV stand.  I’ll whip one up to match the built-in.  Even though the TV is now firmly mounted to the wall, we still want to have a place for DVDs and stuff.

I think Lisa may require me to finish up some minor things in the Nursery before I get knee deep in this one, but nonetheless, I’m hoping to get cracking on these furniture pieces sooner than later.

My intent with this project is to illustrate the build process from design to installation.  Built-ins are really just cabinets and cabinets are nothing more than boxes.  While they can be challenging to make, they’re not a bad project for DIYers.

So did you get snowed in this weekend?  Are you planning any fun projects?

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