Built In Shelves: Check.

And the moment that I've been waiting a long time for--showing you our finished built-ins! We spent a few long nights painting and finishing everything we possibly could and managed to finish a day ahead of schedule. I put the last book onto the shelf last night, sat back, and breathed a huge sigh of relief that our last home improvement project of 2012 has come to an end. A very satisfying end.

To recap, here's where we started:

Everything was up to us to finish this week since the actual building was completed last Sunday. We had to take all 10 shelves out and sand, prime and paint them on each side. The most time consuming part was waiting around for everything to dry before the shelves could be given a second coat and flipped over to start again on the other side. This also meant that our dining room was left in disarray for yet another week while shelves piled up everywhere.

Have you noticed how every room somehow ends up a mess when just one is out of commission? That's the case in our house at least. Only the dining room really had an excuse to be a disaster, yet the kitchen and living room ended up a mess as well...perhaps it was just a reflection of my state of mind the past week spilling over into every room :)

Once the shelves were painted and dry it was time to hang them. I attempted this myself and was so proud when it only took 30 minutes. Then I stepped back to admire my work and realized that the left side shelves were about 4 inches higher than the right all the way up. I mis-measured the bottom one, which was the base height that I used for every subsequent shelf. Fabulous.

Thankfully Chad came home shortly after and fixed them. I think he was afraid I'd use them for kindling if I had to be near them another second. He took them all out, remeasured, and put them back in so that they were even with right side. Charlotte was his spotter.

After everything was in the correct place it was time to just wait around for a day or two while the paint dried and set completely. To make life easier, I measured the length of the shelves then arranged piles of books to that length according to how they'd be placed on the shelf. That might sound crazy but it was really helpful when it came time to haul all those books downstairs. This way we were able to grab one big pile at a time and put them right on the shelves--no sorting, no rearranging, no extra shuffling and carrying heavy stacks of books twice.


And finally:

I love these huge baskets (from Target--they're Smith & Hawken). They have a a chalkboard sign on the front so you can label what's inside and they store a ton of stuff. I managed to fit my entire fabric stash into one! I was able to consolidate three small/medium sized cubes that I had sitting around into this one basket. Win. The other one is home to art/craft supplies, games & puzzles.

One of my favorite parts about these built-ins is the storage bench across the middle. The bench is long, about 76", and the middle section lifts up so the entire unit underneath can be used as storage. I fit my ironing board in there, along with table linens and some larger sewing supplies like pillow forms, interfacing (piles and piles...) and fiberfill.

I guess I lied when I said this was completely finished, because it technically is not. I have a large piece of 2" foam sitting upstairs and just ordered upholstery fabric to make a cushion for the bench. I've never made anything so large before, nor have I ever made a boxed and corded cushion. That should be interesting...

Once everything was in place, we cleaned. Every single room. It felt so good to dust and know that the next day wouldn't bring another layer of dirt and sawdust flying around, or paint spatters, or wood filler drops. It was so nice to finally find a home for all of this stuff that been accumulating in places it didn't belong. It'll also be nice to go to a work meeting without any drops of paint in my hair that I don't discover until I'm in my car on the way home from said meeting.

We love how these turned out--they are exactly what I envisioned and turned out better than I hoped. I feel like they complete the space and were meant to be there all along. I love looking into that room and seeing rows and rows of books. It's like living in my own little library. Yes.