Built-in Shelving in our Home Office – One Room Challenge, Week 5

We haven’t had a very productive week.  It has been a rough and busy week for week 5 of the One Room Challenge, and I’m well aware that the final reveal date is crawling nearer and nearer.  We are still busy finalising the built-in shelving unit.  So today, I’ll be sharing our progress with the built-in shelving unit for our home office and discuss what we still need to do to complete the project. 

How we designed our built-in shelving unit for our home office

We decided to keep the existing built-in closet in the home office. This was to save on costs for the remainder of the shelving and to keep the DB Board hidden.  If we had open shelving along the entire wall, it would have been difficult to conceal the DB Board while still keeping it accessible.  So, this was the best solution for us.

Built-in cabinets:  Base

We ordered cabinets to use as the base.  This saved us time and money.  The timber we would have needed for the bottom cabinets would have cost more, and we would have had to build cabinets from scratch.  We’ve never built cabinets before, so it might have taken us a while to figure it out. 

I ordered two 2-door cabinets (1100mm wide) from Modular Cupboards.  They are a local company, and they gave us excellent service.  It was definitely the best decision for us to order the cabinets. 

When we picked up the cabinets, we built three bases to place the cabinets on.  We realised our floors aren’t level at all, but we used the bases in varying heights to make sure that we installed the cabinets level – can’t have leaning books on an uneven bookshelf. 

With the cabinets in place, we installed the top and fastened it place from beneath, inside the cabinets. 

Adding Shelving

Marinus built most of the shelf unit, and then we moved it into place on the cabinet top.  It was a beast of a shelf to manoeuvre in place, but we got it in.  It was a huge risk to build the shelf this way because we know the walls aren’t straight, but Marinus measured the space well, and luckily it fit.

He installed half of the shelves beforehand to give the unit stability – the remaining shelves will then be installed as movable shelves.  We added a hardboard back to the shelving unit, which we painted before installing.  We also stained the shelves before moving the unit into place. 

Painting the Cabinets and Existing Built-in Closet

I’ve started painting the built-in closet and bottom cabinets, but they do still need a final coat of paint.  We will hopefully complete it tomorrow and Tuesday. 

The paint I used for the bottom cabinets has a different base than the paint colours I usually use.  And for some reason, the paint is taking ages to dry.  As in still sticky after two days, and only really touch dry after a week.  We’ve had hot weather recently, so it is not too cold for the paint to dry.  I suspect that it is the paint base.  This has also held us back as we are giving the paint enough dry-time in between coats.  But I love the colour I chose for these cabinets.  I love it so much that I also pained out printer-table with it.

What we still need to do to complete our built-in Shelving Unit

We still have a bit of work left before we can call this project done:

1. I need to finish the paint job, as discussed above.
2. Marinus will still install a kickplate and quarter round to match our existing. 
3. We need to add a cornice.
4. Cut and install the remaining shelves. 
5. We need to install the old wall sconce onto the bookshelf. 
6. And finally, we will add new hardware for the cabinets.

Update: We completed the built-in unit!

We managed to complete the built-in unit! We installed the remaining shelves and paint the bottom cupboards and existing built-in closet. We also decided not to install a cornice but to finish the new built-in unit neatly with a plank up to the ceiling. Now we just need to install the hardware and wall sconce.

We will be hard at work this week to complete the office, and get them done.  Then I will give myself one more week to complete the wall art, shelf styling and all the small details that I still need to add.  So I will hopefully post the room reveal in two-weeks time.

Until then, take care!

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