Arch Enemies

Arches aren’t really my enemies. They used to be but I think I’ve finally gotten the better of them and now I’ll take on a more charitable attitude towards them. Oh those cute little darlings.

I’m SUPER DUPER excited about how my bookshelves are coming along! I know some of you want a tutorial. I’ve been working on this room for about 3 weeks and it is way too involved for me to write a quick tutorial on how to slap up custom built-ins in one post. I can share the steps that went into building my library bookshelves. Maybe it will help guide your project.

Steps to building custom Built-In bookshelves.

1. Stare at your empty room. (If your room is full of junk, empty it — then stare at it.)

2. Visualize your room as you want it to be. You might imagine 6 different possibilities. Pick the one that you like the best. (If you are having trouble visualizing, go to Pinterst or Google and search for images that inspire you.)

3. Start building the bookshelves. This is the nuts and bolts of the project. It’s hard work. You’ll sweat. You’ll have bruises and cuts and scrapes all over your body from lifting, balancing and carrying heavy objects that under normal circumstanced you would not even dream of attempting but because you are determined to DO THIS you somehow do it!

Realize that two outlets are going to have to be moved…and move them wasting precious hours of your cabinet building time!

Finish building bookshelves.

Library Built Ins 7

Build a base.

Library Built Ins 8

Get all your bookshelves spaced evenly according to your vision and secure them to the wall.

Library Built Ins 2

Attach face frames.
Library Built Ins 3

Attach more face frames — maybe even arched ones.
Library Built Ins 4

And then keep adding more and more details until you achieve your vision.Did that help?

Building built-ins whether they are bookshelves or closet wardrobes — is the same as building a simple cabinet. It’s just on a bigger scale. You can refer to my 3 part cabinet building tutorial if you want help starting at the beginning. Then keep building from there.

These faceframes are completely made out of MDF, arches included. I’m planning to post a tutorial on how to create those later this week. Refer to this post to learn how to get smooth edges when painting MDF.

If you have specific questions regarding any of these steps, or built ins in general, leave them in the comments and I’ll see if I know the answer. If I do, I’ll share.

Cheers

20 Comments

Oh gosh, I remember that post, but only read the first part. I assumed that you were saying it was impossible and stopped reading. 🙁 ADD wins again. lol Thank you AGAIN!

Your site is soooo inspiring. Thank you. Looking forward to the update. I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful paint on your walls as well. Could you tell me the name of it? Is it as pretty in person as it is in the photos?
Thank you.