Yay! The built-ins are finished (well 99% anyway) and I am so excited to finally have a project completed. The bad news is that I can’t fill them with all my stuff just yet, because today I’m about to spread self-leveler so I can start tiling the room tomorrow. I thought I’d type this up while I wait for the primer to dry. I can’t wait to put the awesome amount of new storage to work. It will also be nice to not have “family room” stuff spread all over the entire first floor. But I digress (as usual)…
To recap: (read THIS POST for more details on these steps)
- I bought 6 BESTA bookshelves from IKEA because I was trying to save myself some time and because the idea of painting all those shelves made me a little nauseous.
- After assembling the shelves I set them on a 2×6 base.
- I reinforced the back using my pneumatic nailer and scrap material. I also nailed the bottom shelf of each unit in place. (They are all the same height)
- I figured out the best spacing for my 163″ wall and bought trim accordingly. It goes like this.
- I glued the 6 cabinets together to make 3 pairs. Then nailed the smallest trim piece to the front.
- At some point in here I attached the BESTA to the wall with L-brackets.
- I made cuts for 4 outlets and left the corresponding outlet box in each opening for hubby, who added the outlets. (Look, this is me not saying anything more about it)
- Then I nailed the largest trim piece between the cabinet pairs. These extend higher than the BESTA units and will attach to the ceiling trim eventually.
- The medium-sized trim capped the top of the cabinet pairs, fitting snuggly between the large vertical pieces.
- I filled the nail holes (and my cutting mistakes) with wood filler and sanded everything smooth. I actually like this stuff! I’m not staining it or anything, so I’m not worried about that, but it went on easily with a swipe of my finger, the extra came without much need to sand, and it was dry in about 15 minutes. Go figure, I usually curse wood filler.
- When the built-ins started leaking, I removed the guest bathroom sink and vanity. You can probably skip this step.
And I believe that’s where we left off. This is what I did to finish things off…
Before I could attach the piece of trim to the right side of the unit, I had to screw a scrap piece of wood (it’s actually MDF, but whatever) to the wall so I’d have something to nail into on that side. I also nailed the trim to the side of the BESTA. 
And things were starting to look even better. I also completed the trim across the bottom. I had attached a 10′ 1×6 last week, but had to add on a 4′ piece. I used my new favorite wood filler to make the transition look seamless. (I hope) 
Now to deal with the top shelf. The one above the BESTA units. The trim across the top of the BESTAs is 2 1/2 inches wide and creates about a 1″ lip for the top shelf. To fix this, I added scrap 3/4″ MDF (no really, if you saw my garage you would belive the level of scrap I have) and covered it with luan. I actually bought a sheet of luan for this and had the dude at HD cut it into three 16″ strips.
I was liking the wood so much I almost didn’t want to paint it. Almost. I took the luan down (remember, that’s why I didn’t attach the ceiling trim yet) to paint on the floor. My secret to nighttime painting? Watching TV on my iPad. Love it. Watching Scandal makes painting more bearable. 
With everything painted I could focus on making that top shelf look more intentional. I wanted to add dividers between the pairs of shelves, to accentuate the fact that there are 3 double units, and to make the “walls” behind the 1×6 trim seem like they went all the way to the ceiling. Does that make sense? I came up with a plan to make squares (just like I did in my counter top project) and cover them with luan. First I made the squares out of 2x4s.
Then added luan to both sides.
The squares on the sides had to be beefed up a bit to bring the luan out far enough, so I jerry rigged them with — you guessed it — scrap wood. Even the other divider had to be modified and made out of 2×3 instead of 2×4 because I needed to work around the ceiling vent. The luan on the left side of the center unit sits back further than the others, but it’s hardly noticeable and so much easier than modifying the vent. Soooooo much easier. This is what it looked like from the front.
As a bonus — I now had something to attach the ceiling trim to. No need for the ceiling cleat system I rigged up last week. I pulled those off the 1×4 and filled the holes before I painted. (You can see where in the picture) Ahh… so much easier.
Unfortunately I couldn’t live with that gap at the top, so I cut a few more pieces of luan, painted them and added them on top of the ones you see above. Then I caulked all 4 sides. Then I gave the dividers one last coat of paint. I know. I have issues. I ended up cutting the 10′ 1×4 you see above so it ended on top of the vertical 1×6. Then I cut another 1×4 to fill in the difference. It was much easier to have this piece end where I had something to attach it to. After much wood filler and sanding — I had this.
Then I got stung by a wasp. Except I didn’t know what it was. I thought my arm had been electrocuted or something. All of a sudden, this sharp burning pain started to radiate just below my wrist. I didn’t see a bite or an insect. I stripped my long-sleeve shirt off and started shaking it like crazy. Nothing. I washed my arm, which felt like it needed a tourniquet or something, then called my husband. Lars thought maybe it was a spider bite, which would make sense because we get tons of spiders in here. But alas, when I shook the shirt again, out crawled a wasp. Lars said he wished he had a recording of the whole thing, because he thought the whole “Die wasp! Die!” was hysterical. I’m sure the fact that I told him I had taken off my shirt didn’t factor in at all. Right. Anyway… that was the DIY setback of the day.
The shelves are FINISHED. Except for the 1×6 at the far left. It’s not nailed in place yet. But I have a reason. I’m thinking that even though we have the recessed lights, that the shelves might need some lighting of their own. The final outlet of the daisy-chain is behind that side piece and I want to keep access to it available. Good reason, right? This crappy picture is the only one I have of the finished product right now, because the DIY setback of yesterday is that my camera is broken. After charging the battery it now has an error message about the shutter release. I found this YouTube video on how to fix it, but I haven’t had a chance yet. I’ll update with more pictures when I get it fixed.
And because of the whole concrete thing going on in there right now, they’re not really camera ready anyway. Time to go check on the primer…
Here’s what’s been happening with the family room:
- Ladies Demo + Wine Night
- Family Room Can of Worms
- Family Room Gets Wired Up
- Making Progress on the Family Room
- Design Choices for the Family Room
- Family Effort this Weekend
- The Built-in Bookshelf and Why It’s Not Finished
- Built-in Bookshelf Using IKEA BESTA <<You are here
- Self-Leveling Concrete
- Tiling Herringbone Floor
- Grouting the Herringbone Floor
- New Step into Family Room
- Lego Coffee Table
- Under Couch Lego Storage
WOW!!! They look really good. You do amazing work.
Thanks Reenie!
Dang, lady! Those bookcases are looking really nice! You really have come a long way DIYing that room. It will be such a fun and comfy hangout when you are done. 🙂 I hear ya about wasp. I got stung by one last year due to the many problems with our home. Yes, the wasp was inside the house. Grrr.
What a gorgeous piece of work. I am going to attempt a similar project and was wondering what color of paint you used to get such a perfect match with the besta shelves. Thanks!
Thanks Ruta! I just took one of the besta shelf pieces to Lowe’s and had it color matched. I used the Valspar Signature paint + primer in satin. Besta is on sale right now at Ikea with the Ikea Family card. I am glad I started with those shelves or I probably still wouldn’t be finished. lol
Great job, Liz!