Our First Built In Bookcase

Guys Guys Guys Guys Guys.  I'm SO excited to present to you the most ambitious solo project we have ever attempted, let alone conquered!

So a couple weeks ago when we were working on the planked wall for the nursery, Saint Steve and my Aunt Janet came over to check out our project.  We got to talking about this little area next to the door to the nursery.  I talked about how I felt like the space was wasted and I wasn't sure how to use the space to get the most out of it.  Not sure who mentioned it first but eventually we got to talking about building a bookcase there.  And SS talked us through some of the materials, tools, and process of building it.

The big picture girl that I am... I was sold.  "We can do this!"

But Michael in his detail-oriented-ness, he needed to figure it all out before he joined the built-in bookcase train.

Which, you know what?  Is a really good thing.

It took a lot, let me repeat, A LOT of planning.  A LOT of measuring.  A LOT of list making.

So if you are looking for a "Step One" to building a built in bookcase, that would be it.  Plan plan plan.

One problem with our space was this little air return that we had to contend with.  Do you see it?

I really wanted my bookcase to be about 12inches deep but that meant that the left side of the bookcase would be interrupted by that air return.  After several weeks of discussion, my fantastically smart husband suggested we bump out the bottom part of the bookcase and extend it past the air return.  We just won't put anything too obstructive in front of the air return.  And even if we did, there is an air return right down the hall and right around the corner in our bedroom.

So we decided to build 18inch deep shelves at the base, and 12inch deep shelves at the top, extending them up to the same height as the door.  The bottom will provide a nice space for larger toys or bins of toys while the upper storage will be great for books, pictures, and more precious nick nacks that need to stay away from clumsy growing hands.

Like my rough sketch?  If I were a better blogger it would be a neat computer generated image using photoshop or some such fanciness.  

Once we figured out our measurements, we had to figure out materials.

For this project we bought:
 1 sheet of 0.75" pine plywood (used for our side panels and some shelves)
 0.75" whitewood (used for shelf cleats)
 0.75" kiln dried pine panels (for the rest of the shelves)
 0.75" pine board (used for face pieces)
 2 x 4 (used for building base)

We bought wide enough whiteboard and pine boards in order to cut cleats that were 1" x 0.75" and the face pieces were 1.5" x 0.75".  For all the cutting, it was great to have access to a table saw - we borrowed one from SS. We used our trusty miter saw to cut everything to length! 

Our first step was to tear out the baseboard in the area we were going to build out the shelves.

That hurt a little bit.  It hasn't been too long since that very trim was just set in place and painted.  Oh well, can't cry over painted trim. 


Once our baseboard was out of the way, we cut our first side panel and screwed that into the studs. 

 

Then we built our base.  Some right angles and some screws, that's all it took. 

 We leveled it out with some shims to make sure we were building on a good, even foundation.

 

 Once the base was built we nailed our bottom shelf down and our back cleats.

 

But that was after I had the bright idea to make a bit of a time stamp for this project!  

Then we attached the right side panel.  We used 2" brad nails to attach most of the pieces.

Then we attached our side cleats and the shelves.  We mirrored this process for the top section of the shelf as well.

Attach left panel to the wall.
Attach back cleats.
Attach side panel.
Attach side cleats.
Attach shelves.

On the top section of our shelves, we made the bottom shelf spacing 15", the middle spacing 12", and the top spacing a bit over 12".  We had read the tutorial on Young House Love and they had suggested the bottom spacing be a bit more generous in order to visual look more balanced.   We tried it out with some of painters tape up on the wall and agreed.  It looked better with more space on the bottom then with equal spacing between them all.  The top spacing was a bit more generous because we wanted our shelves to line up with our door frame and used that as a buffer.  We like the way it looks plus it will account for different size books and accessories.

Once we had the basic bookcase built, it was time to add the pretty to it....Meaning the trim and face pieces.  We started at the top. We allowed for a 0.25" overhang past the crown piece for our top shelf. 

But before that went on we had to add what I called the header piece which we attached from side panel to side panel.  Then we moved down the bookcase adding the vertical face pieces first, followed by each horizontal face piece.

Then all we had to do was add the baseboard back on and the shoe molding. 

There may have been a lot of high fiving at this point!

One nice thing we did, that I was SUPER glad about, was cut a lot of the boards the weekend before we did most of the building.  That allowed me to prime and paint most of the boards before it was built.  This was a huge help to me and my growing belly! That way, I only had to touch up the spots where we filled nail holes and caulked. 

Oh and guess what else got painted.... the roooooooom!!

How 'bout that planked wall?! I loved her white but I'm digging her new color! 

The color is Benjamin Moore Louisburg Green.  I am absolutely in LOVE with this color.  My mom came over this last week and helped me knock out the painting (THANKS MOM!!!) and I kept saying.. with a deep sigh... "Have I mentioned how much I'm loving this color."  :-) It's the nice army green color I was hoping for with a smidgen of blue in it to keep it from going poop or pea in color (see what I did there?).   

Fun fact about this color, if you are a fan of the show Modern Family, it is also the exact same color as Cam and Mitchell's living room. 

I can't wait to get the book shelf filled with books, pictures, nick nacks, toys, etc.. I plan to get some canvas bins for the bottom so we can hide away toys in there.  Here are the ones I'm thinking of. 

And because I love going back and seeing the old before pictures from when we bought our house - before our renovation: Here's the before and after of this room when it was still the master bedroom.

See the door and air return are in the same place but we built out the closet and stole some space from the room for our master closet.  :-) Memories.

And then the before bookshelf and the after bookshelf picture.

In total, we spent about $125 on building materials.
That does not include the cost of the small crown piece that we used at the top of the bookcase or the baseboard pieces at the bottom because we had some of those left over from our renovation.   And of course, we are definitely saving a bundle conquering the job ourselves!... not to mention gaining the immense satisfaction in seeing our project come together! I don't think it will be our last project of this magnitude... did someone say "fireplace built-ins?!"

It was me!!... (definitely wasn't Michael!)


This was a big week for getting things done in the nursery! I also purchased a rug for the room and a light.  But more on that another day. 

Interested in more of our nursery projects? Click here and here.

Linked to: Pretty Pintastic Party, Oak&Oats, On Display Thursday, Think&Make Thursday, Talented Tuesday, Thrifty Decor Chic-Before & After Party

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Laura Lately: Golden Week Edition

Hi everybody! February is over but that's not all... It's what I'm calling my Golden Week!

Because for this week, my kiddo and I are 27 weeks and 27 years old, respectively! Yes, today and yesterday I am celebrating turning 27.  (Since there is no February 29th this year, I celebrate my birthday on both February 28th AND March 1st.)

So happy non leap year everybody! And happy non birthday to me!

The Golden Week.  Normally during Laura Lately posts, I post about this last month and what I've been watching/reading/eating/thinking/feeling/looking forward to... but this month I thought I'd catch ya'll up on more pregnancy related happenings. 


Also, in celebration of the golden week, I decided it was high time for a bump picture.  I have been getting a number of requests... and you gotta give the people what they want! So here ya go!

Bump.  In yo face.  There's no hiding it!

But really, who'd want to?

I guess these ladies....!

click for source

Although, $1.79 for a "blue fancy smock"?.. I may be able to be talked into that.  ;-) 

Lately I've been feeling...

Great! My blood pressure has been good (we've been keeping our eye on it as I had a couple of episodes of elevated blood pressure at work a while back).  Thanks to all those who I've asked to be praying for that.  It's working!! 

Lately I've been asked....

If we are sharing our boy's name.  We are not.  It's something we decided to keep to ourselves until we can formally introduce him to the world.  But we do have it picked out.  

Lately I've been advised to...

Not go snowmobiling. :-( 

And let Michael do more laundry. :-)

Lately I've been worried about...

Getting all the nursery in order before he gets here! We made some BIG progress this weekend on the nursery though, so I'm beginning to feel more at ease about it.  

Lately I've been excited about....

Meeting our little man.  For so long, 40 weeks has seemed so far away but now that it is getting closer (and I'm feeling more and stronger kicks) I am getting more excited to start getting to know who this little guy is... and kiss on some fat baby cheeks!

 

Crazy how time flies! Next week I will officially reach the 3rd trimester. 

Which is for real crazy. And weird.  And great.  All of which are the three of my most frequently used words to describe being pregnant and on the brink of becoming a mom. 

Um.. also, super excited to be back next week to show you all the bookcase we built! I'm working hard this week to get it painted! 

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Baby's First Planked Wall

A couple weekends ago, Michael and I tackled our first big task for completing the nursery.

The plan was to plank the wall behind the crib.  If you aren't familiar with what I mean by a "planked wall", click here, or scroll on down and read more.

We used a couple tutorials to help us figure out the process - you can find tons of them on pinterest.  House of Smith was the main resource we used.  I would encourage you to read through her's and several others if you are going to tackle the process.

We purchased 1/4 plywood from Lowe's for $14 per sheet.  Apparently, some Lowe's stores will cut the sheets down for you at the store.  Our Lowe's strictly enforces a rule that it will not cut anything smaller than 8 inches.  We wanted our planks at 6 inches in width.  So what's a tablesaw-less couple to do?  We set up some sawhorses and used the guide on Michael's circular saw to make our cuts.  It worked pretty well and honestly did not take that long.  It's best if you have two people - one to do the cutting and one to hold onto the boards because as you cut further into the wood, the cut piece will start to vibrate, which makes getting a straight cut difficult.  

After our boards were cut, I used the power sander and 150 grit paper to quickly sand down the rough surface.  I also knocked off the freshly cut - and sharp - corners of the boards.
This didn't take long either.   I worked out in the garage sanding (wearing a mask, of course) as Michael prepped the room and made some initial measurements.

Once our boards were ready, we started at the ceiling.  Wow were our ceilings uneven.  We had to do some major adjustments to our boards by trying to cut off pieces of wood in order to compensate for slopes in the ceiling.  We got fairly close and then filled the remaining gaps with calk.
Once we got past the ceiling -which took us probably a good hour- things moved pretty quickly.

 

We used two nickles to space our boards.

And Saint Steve lent us his pneumatic brad nailer which was awesome!



He also lent us his jigsaw, which helped when we had to cut our boards for the outlets and near the window trim. 

Once the whole wall was planked, I filled the holes with wood filler, sanded everything and swept it off.

Then I primed it all.  Two coats.

I'm super psyched about how the horizontal lines of the planked walls contrast with the vertical lines of the crib.   I love it!

Although I love the white against wood, we do plan to paint the planks and the walls all the same color.  But before I paint, I will give the planks a light sanding, just to keep the finish soft to the touch. 

 But before I can paint the room, we have another fairly large project lined up...

That corner by the door is wasted space in this little room.  Our thought?  Make it useful by building a book shelf.  Kids have lots of books, right?  It will also have extra deep shelves at the bottom for toy storage.

After lots and LOTS of planning, we started working on it yesterday.  It's probably our biggest solo project to date, so wish us luck!!  We are optimistic that we will be able to finish building it next weekend.... but then again, this is our biggest solo project to date, so we'll see. :-)

Linked to: Pretty Pintastic Party, On Display Thursday, Think&Make Thursday, Talented Tuesday,
 Thrifty Decor Chic-Before & After Party

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Simple and Sweet Valentine's Treat

Valentine's day is less than a week away.

Thankfully, Michael and I decided this morning in the bathroom that we would be each other's Valentines :-)... phew! Glad we got that decision out of the way.  ;-) And usually we spend it pretty low key with a homemade card. We may go out to eat or I may just make a dinner for us at home.  We don't fuss too much over this holiday.

But this week I found this adorable woven heart at a consignment shop in town and couldn't resist the $2.50 price tag!   I replaced the old ribbon it came with with some bakers twine that I had recently gotten on sale at Meijer. 

So I just cut myself a length of string and hung it on the door that we use everyday.

I placed some paper and a marker nearby and everyday this week whenever we leave, we have to write a little note to each other... with the Valentine spirit in mind.

Then by the time Valentine's Day gets here we get to open and read lots of little notes from our Valentine! Simple and Sweet.  That's my kind of Valentine's day!

What about you?  Are you more of a big-extravagant-date-with-2-dozen-red-roses kind of Valentine? Or a sweet-card-and-simple-meal kind of person?

Alsoooo......  I can't resist sharing, and if you follow me on instagram you already know...

we started on the nursery this weekend! The initial project?...planking the wall behind the crib! We actually finished it all on Saturday but I want to get it primed at least before I share it with you all.  Just a little sneak peak for today! EEEK! So excited!

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Laura Lately: January Edition

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!  If you know me at all, you probably know I have very little interest in sports... but I do have an interest in getting together with friends, eating foods with far too much cream cheese to be good for you, and watching fun commercials.  Although, this year, "friends" = Michael and if the baby counts, then him too.  Because right now, it looks like this outside:

Lately I can't get enough of...

The view out our front window! It's beautiful outside and we are expected to get about 16+ inches of snow by tonight! Since I have no place to go, I get to curl up with a blanket, my computer and enjoy the falling snow.  It's perfect packing snow too so I keep asking Michael if he wants to build a snowman (you know the tune).  No snowman has been built thus far.  I'll keep you posted.

Lately I've been watching...

I was all excited because I thought I read that Animal Planet would be live streaming the Puppy Bowl XI online today.  No such luck.  And with no cable in our home, I am forced to spend my day puppy-less.  But I have been enjoying watching a lot of Friends on Netflix!

Lately I've been shopping for...

BabyB! You can check out my pinterest board for all the cute cute things I've been ogling. 

We have been continuing to watch Craigslist for good deals on a changing table/buffet as well as a glider/rocker.  Nothing yet but I'm hopeful we can still score a deal in plenty of time for our little guy's arrival in May.  

Oh and this happened! The crib is in the house ya'll! That's a pretty big deal!!

Lately I've been munching on...

Chicken, Steak, Eggs, Nuts.  Lots and lots of protein.... for a healthy growing boy. 

Lately I've been looking forward to...

My birthday!! I get to turn 27 at the end of this month! I always said I felt like, for me, 27 was the perfect age to become a mom!  So I look forward to turning 27 and start this transition that will surely change my life, heart, mind, priorities, etc.. forever.  

Lately I've been thinking about...

How sometimes its easier to be a care-giver than receiver.  As a healthy 26 year old nurse, I am much more familiar with taking care of patients than being a patient.  In fact, other than going for the routine check ups, I have never really been on the other side of the scrubs.  But this last week changed that.  Long story short, I couldn't be more thankful for skilled and caring doctors and nurses. I especially am super thankful for my own coworkers who took such good care of me when I was not feeling well.  Don't worry, things are OK, just some fluky blood pressure and heart rate issues that seem to stay at bay most of the time.. and go away with rest... thankfully.  I mainly just want to write this out of a grateful heart for my coworkers who sprang into action, making me feel well cared for and reassured.  I couldn't ask for better people to care with and be cared for by. 

Don't miss a beat.  

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