Happy Halloween!

My girls are very excited to go out tonight to Trick or Treat! We have an artist, a minion, fairy and kitty cat this year! I don't think I have time to do this glam look to my pumpkins, but that's the great thing about pumpkins is keeping them around a bit longer for Thanksgiving! 

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How We Built Our Library Bookshelves

This has been one of the most involved projects we've worked on so far but it has been totally worth it. After figuring out the look we were after, my husband drew out a plan of how to make it. Essentially, the library consists of 5 cabinet bases, 5 bookshelf tops, and some trim to finish it off. Since this is a built in library, we will talk about how we made it starting with explaining how to build one bookshelf. If you have a larger or smaller wall you would need to adjust accordingly. Here are the basic steps we went through.

Tools we used:

• Table saw
• Skill saw
• Router
• Sander
• Craig Jig
• Air compressor
• Nail guns
• Screw gun
• Drill
• Wood clamps

Supplies we used:

• 2"x6" pine for the foundation
• 3/4” Birch cabinet-grade plywood for cabinets and bookshelves
• 3/16” laminated plywood for cabinet backing
• 1/4" barn siding plywood for bookshelf backing
• 3/4” poplar trim (various widths) for styles and rails
• Wood glue
• Screws

For the cabinet bases and bookshelves, we used ¾” birch plywood (cabinet grade). For the trim and doors, we used poplar, which holds paint well and is an easy wood to work with. For the bookshelf backing, we used “barn board” plywood. For the cabinet backing, we used 3/16” laminated plywood. We got everything from Home Depot.

To start, we removed the baseboard trim and crown molding in way of the built-ins. Be careful when removing the trim because you’ll end up re-installing it when the built-ins are complete.

The cabinet bases are made of 4 main pieces: the two sides, the bottom, and a shelf. We used a router with a ¾” bit to carve out slots for the bottom and the shelf. Our workshop is in our unfinished basement, which we plan to finish someday soon. Here is a picture of the main pieces prior to assembly.

We then assembled the pieces using glue and screws and then added a spreader (the top horizontal piece) and finished it off by nailing a 3/16” plywood backing to the cabinet. We did this 5 times.

Meanwhile, back upstairs we made a foundation out of 2"x6" pine lumber for the cabinet bases to sit on. We made the foundation height such that the top of the installed baseboard trim would come about 1” below cabinet bottoms. Then we set the cabinet bases on the foundation and re-installed the baseboard. We then added poplar styles and rails to the cabinet bases. 

The cabinet top is made of the same birch plywood with a ½” baton of poplar to hide the end grain. The hole in the wall is where the wiring comes out. There was a switched outlet on the bottom left of the wall which we planned to use for power for the sconces.

The next step was to make the book shelves. We used the same router bit to cut slots for each shelf. We made the shelf spacing 12”. We chose 12" based on the largest books we had and what we wanted to put on the shelves. 

Then we assembled the pieces using glue and screws. 

And repeat!

If you are going to do something similar, I recommend painting the bookshelves BEFORE installing the backing. It will save you a TON of time. The backs were made of barn siding plywood and is relatively inexpensive, but rough. However, once you sand it down, it looks amazing. On another side note, while we were sanding, we had a crazy visitor. I have no idea what this bug is called but it freaked me out. It was HUGE!

After the backs were sanded, we primed, painted, then nailed them to the back of the completed cabinets.Then we brought the bookshelves upstairs and put them on top of the cabinet bases. The spaces between the book shelves are for the wiring.  

The next step was to start adding the trim. We started with the top rail. We made the top rail fairly wide because it would also serve as the backing for the raised crown molding. Then we added the stiles (vertical boards) which covers the bookshelf joints and holds the sconces. The lighting we got at Overstock. At first we were looking at swing arm lamps that were gorgeous, but out of our budget; especially since we would need five. Then we decided on sconces since we would then only need four.

Nothing (not even this project) would stand in the way of making our kids practice piano. That is why the piano never left this space. We had to move it around quite a few times but it all worked out.

Then we added the rails for each shelf out of 1 ½” strips of poplar and attached them using glue and nails. We then put the rest of the crown molding back up.  

All that is left now are the cabinet doors. These were the hardest part. My husband would write a whole post just about these doors but to make a long story short, here is how we did them.

Each door is made of two stiles (the vertical pieces), two rails (horizontal pieces), and a center panel. The slot in the middle of each stile and rail was made with a table saw. The rails also have “tongues” (also made on a table saw) which fit in the slot of the stiles. Here is the resulting frame prior to gluing it up.

 We then glued the door pieces together and sanded.

We primed and painted each door in the basement before installing them. We went with Blum Euro-style hinges from Amazon which require blind holes in one stile.

We also covered the entire built-in with a protective polyurethane coat. 

We added the doors to the cabinets and added our kitchen knobs (we decided to put some pulls in our kitchen, so this was an easy way to re-use knobs we already had). You can see our library reveal post here.

 And then we took a nap. 

***Updated March 3, 2014***
Here's how she looks now all decked out-

You can see my post on how I styled this beauty  in this post and the transformation with the sconces using Rub N' Buff here. 

I'm entering this project in Creating with Stars Contest! Come check it out and other amazing D.I.Y projects. 

Library Reveal

  We finished our library built-in and now its time for the big reveal....

Here's what the room looked like before with our big blank wall.

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Progress picture- this image shows when we put the cabinet bases down. Steve made all the cabinet bases and he had to do some wiring for the sconces. We also had to take down the crown molding and baseboard trim to make room for the built-ins. 

The five bookshelves ready for their backs to be put on. 

Here it is without all the books...

Steve and I worked together to make these bookshelves and we love how they turned out. After looking at a bunch of different bookshelf  ideas, we decided to paint them white. The wall color is Dovetail by Shermin Williams and the white is white trim paint (we just matched the paint with the trim). Have any of you ever built something that you feel so proud of at the end of a big project? I would love to hear about it. I'll get down to the nitty-gritty tomorrow for some details on how we made our built-ins.

Halloween Centerpieces

I'm getting ready for a church sponsored Halloween party where my friend asked me to do two different centerpieces for the tables. I 'shopped' my house to see what I had and came up with these two ideas.

    Table 1

I try to buy seasonal and holiday things when they go on clearance so I can save some money. I got the urn from Home Goods and it will be used many times for seasonal things. The candlesticks came from a thrift store. The other things I already had on hand. The key to making a centerpiece work is....

LAYERING.

  Keep in mind a few principles of design: proportion, balance and emphasis. My emphasis is the center and then I need to balance it out with a few other items, but they need to be in proportion as not to be larger than the center. Got it? 

    Table 2

Stab some marshmallow Peeps with branches and it makes a whimsical look. Voila! Branches are great for almost every season of decorating since you can hang all sorts of things from them like ornaments, Easter eggs, bats, or ghosts. Also, I took a wreath I made and put some webbing around it for the base. Putting bright candy corn in a glass jar is always a good idea. The runner is wrapping paper from the dollar isle of Target. Wrapping paper is a great way to add color and you can find some really inexpensive ones when they go on sale. If you look behind the centerpiece you can get a sneak peak of our gallery wall- which is shaping up. 

Let's take a peak at some other Halloween-y things around our house. Shall we?

                   Have a wonderful weekend! Come back this week for our library bookshelves reveal!

A Gallery Wall

A gallery wall truly covers your walls in your own style. In our last house we had a big space above our couch that I finally decided to put up all white frames and do a gallery of images. I loved it! What is important to remember is your images tell a story about who you are, your interests, where you have traveled or lived. We are currently working on a gallery wall going up our stairs. Hopefully I can get a balance of family pictures, art and quotes on the wall. I want my girls to look at the art and pictures on our walls and feel inspired and loved. Here are some images I have collected that are helping me with the direction I want to go.

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LGN

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I like the different colored mats in this one.

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LGN

Wouldn't this be fun to frame some colorful bathing suits? Especially adorable would be showcasing little kid's classic suits.

Cottage and Vine

     This is what our stairwell looked like right before we moved in. The plan is to bring the pictures all the way to the tippy top. What do you think? Do you have a gallery wall in your home? Did you stick with different frames or all the same? Come back soon to see what we have done with this space.

Double Take

 I honestly didn't think it would be in the cards this year, but by some furniture miracle I was able to get two matching arm chairs this weekend. My idea for our family room has been to have two matching chairs by our fireplace, but I haven't found any even on Craigslist that seem affordable for us or that I like. Then, Saturday I went to a very large Rummage Sale in Leesburg, Virginia with my cousin. I had no idea that this Rummage Sale was so huge. It was held at Morven Park, a great Equestrian Park where fields were filled with cars and barns were full with furniture, jewelry, antiques, clothes, and books. I was thrilled!

                                  I took a couple pictures of beautiful Virginia country for you.

Once we got into the furniture section there was much to look at, but I spotted these two beauties that I knew could be perfect for our family room. However, one of the legs was broken off. Hmmmm... I called my husband and sent him a picture and he said he could fix it. I was able to talk to the furniture saleslady and get a discount from $80 to $50 for the broken one, so I got both chairs for $130! Yea! We also looked at the bottom of the chair and the tag says Lane Furniture.

When looking at these chairs I was reminded of these chairs that Sarah Richardson had put into her house. They have the same English rolled look. 

When the chairs got home there was some minor surgery to be done. Steve knew what to do to strengthen the leg and he hammered a new piece back in. Good as new!

Now, our family room has some extra seating and more coziness by the fireplace. Also, you can see I have no curtains here, but I am working on them- they'll be up soon. All these pretty chairs need now are colorful pillows!

Here are some more paired arm chair images that helped me formulate ideas for our family room:

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             Do you like matching chairs or mis-matched? I'm thinking it's a bit more traditional of me, but I think I lean that way than the modern look. Hope you have a great day! Thanks for stopping by my blog.