Custom Bookshelf Built-in Part 1

ORC Week 5 and 6: Built-in progress!

Well, since our last post we made our way through Halloween, a massive snow storm, and the beginnings of our bookshelf build. 

This is our second time making custom cabinet bases and it went so much faster this time. We were able to get all four bases made in one day, which is must faster than our first attempt during the ORC last summer. For this project, I want four large cabinet bases with drawers topped with built-in bookshelves that extend all the way to the ceiling. 

The layout of the living room is very long and linear so the natural feel is for the sofa to be parallel to our long wall, leaving the angled corner fireplace not the center of attention. This takes some getting used to if you are a fireplace-as-the-heart-of-the-home type of person. Over the last almost two years we found we like the arrangement of the sofa along this line rather than facing the fireplace. So that means the TV needs to hang on a different wall instead of over the fireplace. I’m also not a fan of the TV being a centerpiece and would rather save my mantel as a place for art and seasonal decor. So the plan is to get a picture TV  (we’re looking at the Hisense canvas TV) and hang this in the central bookshelf area instead. The rest of the shelving area will be dedicated to actual books, pictures, plants, and decor items. I also plan to install lighting, which I’ll save for my next post. 

I spent many a night making drawings with different layouts and decided on four large base cabinets as the foundation so this was the first thing we needed to tackle. We’re using sandewood plywood 22/32” aka close to ¾” to build the cab frame, ¼” for the back, and ¾” poplar 1x 2’s for the faceframe. Once I had the vision in place, I mapped out measurements and used Opticutter to help plan our cuts on the plywood.

We made quick work with the cuts and immediately moved to drilling a million pockets holes on our cross supports to start our build. Each box is made up of two sides, two lower cross supports, an upper back support, and upper front support, and a cab base board all connected with pocket holes. These cabs did not have a toe kick so we are literally connecting to rectangles together. I started with attaching the top front cross support to one side and then to the other with pockets holes and a corner clamp to keep everything square. From there attached the back cross support and then flipped it over to attach the two bottom cross supports. This process went to so fast and made me feel so productive. 

Next up, was cutting down the poplar 1x2 to create the face frames. I decided I want the cabinets to have three drawers of even size to give us plenty of storage for blankets, decor, and likely errant toys courtesy of our toddlers. Given this, I was able to easily draw out the plans and measurements for the face frames. We did two long pieces that cover the full height of the cab opening and then cut the cross beams to fit inside those. It’s a cleaner look, fewer cuts, and makes for less alignment issues. This time we pre-assembled the face frames using pocket holes and then we attached them to cabs using 18g nails. We’ll cover the holes with wood filler, sand, and then paint. Last time we installed the face frames using pockets on the cab sides and thought this was a little overkill, but some prefer this method. Once these are installed it really starts to look like a cabinet ready for drawers. 

For the back, we cut down a ¼” plywood piece in multiple pieces to cover the backs. Since two of the cabs have outlets or low voltage plates they abut, Jake cut out holes in the backs to maintain access to these if people want to use them later. He had already added electrical higher up on the wall so we won’t likely use these. Although, I might add an in-drawer charging station. Put it on the to-do list. 

The next step for us will be to paint these, attach the decorative baseboard, and secure these into the wall. From there we can build up with our bookshelves and then FINALLY finished the coffered ceiling! We’re making progress and I’m determined to make some major progress this coming week once I’m off of work. 

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