Checking In: Living Room Built-ins (Nearly a Year Later!)

DIY is always a slow moving train around here. Between the two of us working full time, a 8 month old, and year-round softball - life is one huge time suck and there just isn't much time or energy leftover for house projects.

I had to scroll all the way back to December 2016 in my phone to find this photo:

Those are our cabinets for the built-in getting delivered - almost a year ago!

Man...we suck!

Anyways...it's almost December 2017 and we're still not done. We're close though!

Ok, I lied. We're about 50% done. But since the living room built-ins is on our list of 2017 House Goals list, I thought I'd show you where we're at and how we got here.

After soliciting several quotes and dying of sticker shock (basically this project all over again) we decided to DIY. DIYing a built-in isn't really all that hard. It's just intimidating. So before we got started, we pulled inspiration from these DIY built-in projects here, here, and here and just went for it.

We chose to use unfinished upper kitchen cabinets from Home Depot because they were readily available, affordable, and wouldn't eat up a lot of floor space. They arrived December 17, 2016 - see picture above.

We went with five 30" upper kitchen cabinets for an almost 13 foot built-in unit! Hellllo storage!

After the cabinets arrived we built a base for the cabinets to sit on. We did this so that we could wrap baseboard around the base of the cabinets for a "built-in look". We chose to have the base flush with the cabinet fronts rather than set back like a traditional toe-kick in a kitchen set-up.

 

 

Since we have 5" baseboard all throughout the house we built the base for the cabinets to sit on just slightly smaller than 5". This way...the baseboards would completely cover the base plus slightly overlap the bottom edge of the cabinets. I think we ended up going with a 2x4 and 1x2 turned on its side to achieve the height we needed.

 

We also ran a 2x4 along the back wall of the living room - secured into the studs - to bump the cabinets out away from the wall about 2". We did this for a few reasons...the first was so that we could easily secure the cabinets to the 2x4 (which was already secured to the studs) so we didn't have to worry about hitting studs if we had secured the cabinets directly to the wall. The second reason we did this was because bumping the cabinets out from the wall 2" allows the bookshelves up top to be recessed a bit. With the 2" bump out the counter becomes 15" deep (12" cabs + 2" bump out + 1" overhang = 15" counter) giving a little extra counter space up top and an overall better "built-in" look.

What came next was probably by far the hardest part of the entire install. So glad it's over and so glad we both still love each other after the fact - ha!

To install the cabinets we started with the base we had built on the ground, set each cabinet on top, and began securing the cabinets to the 2x4 along the back wall all while making sure everything was level and plum - using shims where necessary (omg - so many shims). The first cabinet was pretty easy and straightforward - it was secured to the side wall, the back wall, the base, AND the adjoining cabinet. It did however, get more difficult with every cabinet we added to ensure that the unit as a whole was level and plum. We had to use quite a few shims along the back wall because our wall is not perfectly straight (what wall is?) and we also shimmed the base quite a bit because our floor slopes down pretty bad in that area too. Other than that...we secured the hell out of these cabinets: to the back wall, the base, and the adjoining cabinet(s) - they aren't going anywhere!

Below is the side view - right after we installed the cabinets and getting ready to add baseboard. This area got covered up with a project panel so you'd never know we're cheating the depth by 2".

 

 

A couple things I should probably mention - we did not secure the base to the floor at all. I didn't want to drill holes into perfectly good flooring in case a future owner wanted to come in and rip it out and then be left with holes. We could've secured the base to the side wall if we wanted to but determined that the sheer weight of all the cabinets plus bookshelves up top would prevent this thing from going anywhere.

We also made sure to measure and cut out holes in the back of a few cabinets so that we had access to any outlets along the wall. We did this before securing the cabinet so if we had to make any adjustments, it was easier to do.

Once all the cabinets were installed and secured - we focused on the top or the "counter" portion of the built in.

I knew going in that this would be the portion of the project that would be our biggest hang up. We built a 13 ft cabinet but finding a 13 ft topper would prove to be either very difficult, very expensive, or both. SPOILER ALERT: it's both.

One of the tutorials that I referenced above used a single piece of butcher block for affordability and while butcher block is affordable, a 13 ft length was still a few hundred dollars and more than I wanted to spend. Plus...I didn't want a stained top. I wanted an all white top to achieve the look of this project. Except they were working with pre-fab Ikea cabinets and didn't need a top like we did.

So after procrastinating about it way too long, we decided to make our own. We chose a high quality, paint grade, birch plywood and seamed 2 smaller pieces together to make one massive counter top that could be painted to match the rest of the cabinets. We purchased the plywood from Home Depot and had them rip it down to size in the store.

 

Here's my handy helper:

 

 

I'd tell you how we seamed the 2 pieces together but we aren't wood workers and our approach is probably embarrassingly incorrect. We attached flat brackets on the underside for support and we used birch veneer tape on the edge of the plywood top to give it a nice finished look. We also made sure to fill, sand, and plane the top seam to make it look like 1 long piece of wood vs 2 pieces stuck together. No one but us will know (and now too you I guess) that we took the cheap way out: the cost of a single sheet of high quality plywood - $50!

To wrap up where we're at now, the cabinets and top have been painted white, we attached the top to the cabinets using construction adhesive and installed some pretty gold hardware - a well deserved splurge since we saved thousands doing this ourselves.

 

 

Next up: bookshelves, shiplap, and trim!

Here's to hoping it doesn't take another year to knock this out...

2017 House Goals

It's 2017! Can you believe it?!

I hope your holidays were full of love, laughter, and a whole boat load of cookies. In case you're wondering...no, we didn't get an early Christmas present. I'm still pregnant. VERY pregnant actually. We've got about 3 weeks to go now and we're ready for her any day now. If she decided to show up a little earlier than expected, no one would mind!

I'm so excited for a new year (and a new baby - duh!) but before we get started let's have a little heart to heart...ok?

I'm coming up on my 2 year blogiversary at the end of the month and am still trying to figure it all out. Can't you tell? Trying to find balance between the job that pays my bills and the blog is something that I've obviously failed at these past 2 years but it's definitely something that I really want to focus on in the coming year. I don't know exactly what I expected when I published my first post back in 2015 but I think I thought it was going to be easier.

#realitycheck

It isn't. Blogging is hard. Like real hard.

It's hard to find time to photograph our house when all my daylight hours are spent away from it. It's hard to sit down at night and blog when all I want to do is cuddle up with my guy and binge watch something on Netflix. It's also hard to blog when you're 37 weeks pregnant and sleeping just sounds so much more enticing than editing photos. It's.just.hard.

But you know what? I love blogging too.

When I actually dedicate time to photograph our house, or a project, and blog about our life and what we're doing - it brings me so much joy. I want more of that in 2017. Don't you? Don't we all need more joy in our lives? The answer is yes.

The feedback I receive here and on Instagram from total strangers who stumbled upon my itty bitty blog is pretty awesome too! #somanythanks. But let's also address the giant elephant in the room in my belly. This baby is coming quickly (we hope) and I honestly don't know how that will affect the blog. I hope to take a few weeks off to enjoy her newbornness but I also hope to get back at it and not let the silence linger too long here. 

To start out 2017 on a good foot, I wanted to share a few house goals we'd like to focus on in the coming year. With a new baby arriving any day, I'm intentionally keeping the list short hoping that the less ambitious I am now will translate into success at the end of the year. #noshame

Our 2017 House Goals:

Living Room + Built-Ins

To refresh your memory, let me remind you what our living room looked like on move in day:

A little after moving in we closed off that doorway you see on the left in the photo above: 

And we sorta lived with this situation ever since...

So blogger-y, right?!

But this year not only do I want to finish this space off...I really want to focus on the wall opposite our couch. We're DIYing a 12 ft wall of built-ins! Oye!

The cabinets arrived just before Christmas and we've already made some progress that I can't wait to share!

Guest Bath

Our guest bath looks pretty much the same as it did when we first moved in. Aside from throwing down a rug and putting up a shower curtain, it's still horribly ugly and in need of attention A-SAP.

We already replaced the toilet. We purchased a new sink + vanity combo over the summer during an Ikea sale which puts us ahead of the game already! 

Now all we need to do is figure out when the best time is to tackle this sorry excuse of a bathroom because baby's gonna need a bath!

Bedroom #2 - Little Lady's Room

With a new baby arriving any day I really want to complete this room for the other special lady in our life. My step-daughter stays with us part time and it's really important that she has a finished room she loves and can escape to during those first few crazy newborn months.

So far the room has received new flooring, baseboards, molding, and a fresh coat of paint but it still has a long ways to go. We have plans to add a hanging chair in the corner of her room for the avid reader that she is and add in plenty of pops of color to reflect her spunky personality!

Oh, and don't worry...a proper bed frame is on the to-do list too!

Nursery (Bedroom #3)

The now nursery was used as an office by the previous owners and we've been hard at work over the last few months to get this room baby ready. It's actually about 90% complete already as we're just waiting on some art work and waffling between adding doors to that opening or leaving it as-is for now.

Does that mean I'm cheating because I'm adding a nearly finished room to our 2017 house goals list?! Probably. But I don't care. I need all the help I can get...LOL.

Whether we add doors or not, this room will probably be the first in the list above that'll get revealed here on the blog and I can't wait to show you how it turned out!

So? What do you think?!

These 4 spaces complete my 2017 house goals list and I hope you're just as excited about the year ahead as we are! We've already made great progress in 3 of the 4 rooms on this year's list and I can't wait to see what we get accomplished this year and are able to look back on 2017 with success.

Till then...it's #babywatch2017!