Library Built-ins and Built-in Building Tips

I’m feeling SUPER excited about the library because it’s coming together fast.

Last week it was an empty room with a rough doorway and no lights.

Today, it’s a room with a rough opening, no lights and some half finished bookcases.

It’s going fast partly because I’m only doing Built-ins on one wall.  Unlike the giant pain in the boot-ey project that was my Master Closet. Three days instead of three months!  I can live with that.

And Partly because I got some help this weekend!

Which, I suppose, is why I was inspired to write yesterday’s “How to DIY together and Stay Together” post.    Wes and I are getting better and better at working together.

He helped me cut 20 shelves and drill hundreds of shelf pin holes.

We actually had a lot of fun working side by side (this time)!

 

A couple other things that helped move it along are my Built-In Building Tips for the day:

 

Tip # 1.  Have your large sheet lumber cut for you.

Did you know you can call or fax your lumber order (Cuts and all) to Home Depot and they’ll have it ready and waiting for you to pick up?  I had a really easy order so I just called it in.  “10 sheets of 3/4″ MDF ripped at 14″ wide, long ways, and keep the end scraps.”  I paid with my credit card and picked it up an hour later and it looked just like this!

I so didn’t want to go in and look for someone to help me drag 10 sheets onto a cart and then wait for them to cut it.  I asked at the Pro Desk if you have to be a Pro to use this service and they said no, it’s for anyone!  They charge 25 cents a cut but it’s totally worth it.  It would take me all day to heft 10 sheets onto a work table one by one, measure, mark, clamp and cut 3 times per board.

 

*Your cuts won’t always be exactly perfect so you’ll have to decide if it’s worth it to you.  You might have to even them up at home, but the smaller pieces are easier to work with so I do this whenever I can.

*If I want complicated cuts I’ll fax it in.  I usually make a drawing of how I want each sheet cut to ensure I get the most out of each sheet.

p.s.  I have no affiliation with Home Depot.  I’m not getting paid to tell you about this…just FYI.

Tip #2:  Make a template for shelf pin holes.

When making multiple cabinets that are exactly the same, it saved Oodles of time to make a template for your shelf pin holes out of peg board.  I always use 1/4″ shelf pins and the pegboard holes are perfectly sized.  I make a stop block, cut to the right size to stop the drill from drilling past the depth I want.  I talked about that in more depth in my Cabinet Building Tutorial Series if need a visual.

 

*Make sure to mark the top of the template and the top of your wood so every piece ends up exactly the same.

*Clamp the template on top of the board and start drilling.

*I mark where I’m planning on putting fixed shelves and

*only drill every other hole.  They’re really close together and I think it’s unattractive to have that many holes in the sides of your Built-ins.

*I also don’t drill holes 6″ above or below fixed shelves unless I plan on having a really small distance between shelves.  (Which I don’t.)