DIY BUILT-INS PART 1 (video)
Our family room has gone through quite the remodel. Here’s a little before action from when we were walking through the house to refresh your memory…
The room just felt so closed in, dysfunctional, boring, and blah. I always envisioned built-in shelves around the fireplace, with our television mounted above, but I reallllly didn’t want to hire it out. But there was a problem– we had never built shelves before. Not that it has ever stopped us before. We are an ignorantly confidant bunch around here. So, we naturally dove right into DIY Built-ins (and they include an IKEA hack!).
After much scheming and planning and thinking, our hesitance came down to one big problem: the cabinet bases.
Building cabinets is super tricky. Trying to get the doors to function properly and line up exactly right is extremely difficult. Then while walking through IKEA, I had an epiphany: use Ikea cabinets as the base.
I originally thought kitchen cabinets, but once I started looking around, I knew two IKEA Besta Units would be purrrrfect. We purchased doors for them, and they were the launching pieces for the project.
Building built-ins, a mantle, adding moulding detailing, painting, and styling them took many steps, so I’ve broken this project into three parts: this first part is demo and building the skeleton. the mantle, and the wood detailing above the fireplace. I think video teaches in a way that still images just can’t– you can actually see us putting this project together which if you’re wanting to do it yourself, is invaluable. I did most of the shooting for these videos, as we were often working on them late at night. James rounded out the shooting and edited it all together. Thanks James!
A few more tips: building the mantle was actually a bit easier than we anticipated. We essentially built out a wood box, then added moulding detail to it.
All of the lumbar was purchased at Home Depot, with the exception of the crown moulding. We bought that at a wood mill called Heutter Mill. We wanted something a little beefier, and a specialty wood mill has a bigger selection.
We hired out the tile work on this job because we were frankly just too swamped to do it ourselves. I chose this marble subway tile from Home Depot, and we laid it in a herringbone pattern on the angle. If I’m being honest, I was gone when it was installed and the angle is not what I thought was happening, but I actually liked it a lot once it was in. I think it looks fresh and modern. What a happy accident.
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