I know I’ve been doing a ton of outdoor projects lately, but I haven’t forgotten about the inside as much as you might think. In fact, I’ve still got a very LONG list of projects I’m trying like hell to plan in the right order so that I don’t go insane from my whole house not having anywhere to put the stuff that is supposed to go in one room but can’t because it’s full of stuff from that other room that’s full of stuff from a different room and all of them are mid-project.
Basically, Thursday.
For now, I guess I’m just kicking around ideas and could use your input (like you did for me here and here). Lately, it seems like everyone is either just completing or just getting started on a new built-in project, and I think I could use a few of them in my house — especially the master closet, the entryway closet, and the living room. But what I wonder is, will the effort be worth the cost of labor, time, and my wallet? Should I go with pre-made bookshelves and built around them to make them look built-in, or is the quality difference worth the extra labor of building straight from plywood (I already know what some of my hardcore builder buds will say about that!). I found a few great examples online during my search for answers, so for today, I’m just going to break down my thought process so that I can get back to the to-do list. Writing these things down strangely help by letting me focus, and your insight could be useful too!
(By the way, if you want to pin one of the projects below, please go to the original source and pin from there!)
1. I love the idea of adding a reading nook upstairs, kind of like this one from Just Call Me Homegirl. In truth, I don’t get much of a chance to read until I’m on vacation (unless you count blogs and Facebook articles, I suppose… I read a lot of online articles), but I also secretly wonder if I could Field-of-Dreams my way into a good habit; if I build it, the reading will come, right?
2. Speaking of books, I have been eyeballing the wall that separates my living room from my dining room as the perfect spot for a wall of built-in bookshelves. Now’s the time to start figuring out if I’m going to pull the trigger or not, because I also won’t want to do the crown in that room twice (or undo previous molding work to get it all to match). If I were to add them, I’d work in the crown around the top, sort of like Ciburbanity did on her Billies.
The general idea would be to have two larger bookcase openings flanking either side of the large doorway between the living and dining room. I’d show you some pictures of what I mean (click here just to see the living room in general), but it’s a huge mess right now from closet makeover madness (I’ll get to that a little further down). Place of My Taste did something similar below, and I think what I like so much about it is the way the shelves are broken up with vertical dividers… it keeps the eye moving, ya know?
Shine Your Light Blog added a wall of buit-ins that almost exactly mimic my thought process on this. I want to incorporate the space between for the door opening in order to make it all look like one purposeful unit. (She also did a comparison of using Billy bookcases from Ikea versus DIYing the whole thing out of plywood, so it’s worth a read!)
3. Finally, there’s the downstairs closet near the entryway. I haven’t really shown you any sneak peeks of this yet (and won’t for a couple of weeks), but I’m taking some heavy inspiration from mudroom pictures. I’m kind of on board with the ease of building a bench-like area that could house baskets, like Little Red Brick House did here…
But I also LOVE the way Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl) created more of a hidden storage space near her windows. I just got some chest hinges delivered from National Hardware (as you might recall from this post, they’re a sponsor of mine this year, so I’m trying to really put it to good use and get a bunch of hardware tasks done!), so I’m thinking of going this route to better use the floor space that’s being wasted in the entryway closet (I don’t want to take off the door, but I also realized how little I hang coats in there but still use it for other storage).
But, here’s the part where I get you guys to chime in, because I’m still not really decided on anything yet and want to do some more brainstorming. What do you think of built-ins in general? Have you been wanting to put them in or are there some you’re anxious to rip out? I’m all ears.
The post Reader Remarks: Ridiculously Good Built-In Ideas appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.
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