this weekend, my dad and i started and almost finished my grand plan for the living room (which i talked about a LONG time ago,
here and also recently
here). prett-ay, prett-ay exciting (name that show) for me. i sold the console that i posted on the blog the other day, so i went to ikea this weekend, and bought two
billy bookcases for the wall. i searched for a console to put in the middle of them, but couldn't find anything perfect for the spot. i measured everything 100 times, and, thankfully, it worked perfectly.
the area used to look like this. not much storage, and not very attractive with visible cords everywhere:
after i sold the console, i cleared the area out and we started out with the big, blank wall. notice the light fixture above, too (hate it).
when you buy the billy bookcases, they come with a cut-out where the shoe moulding is supposed to go (against the wall), so that your bookcases are flush with the wall. i saw
john and sherry's post on young house love about how they altered their's, so i decided to do the same. our moulding is a little taller, so we held a piece of cardboard up against the end of the wall, and traced it. i cut it out with scissors, and we held it back up to the wall to make sure that the template was correct: (naturally, mika models)
...it was! yay.
we took the shelves back to our makeshift cutting station and used a jigsaw to cut along the little traced marks we made with the template:
here's the pencil marks before we sawed that puppy.
this was my first experience with a jigsaw, and it was a lovely one. i'm super excited to have a new tool added to my collection, and really happy with the possibilities of being able to build things...
followed along the edge and sawed that bad boy OFF.
then, we brought all of the side pieces back in, and assembled, assembled, assembled. you just follow the ikea instructions at this point...
working...
teamwork
even though it looks like i'm about to stab my dad in the head with a screwdriver...oops!
this is after we had all of the shelves in place, and i realized my measurements were, in fact, correct!
once we made sure everything was going to fit properly (dad is the king of measuring), we screwed L-brackets to the top of the shelves to make sure they were securely attached to the wall. i had to hold it so that dad could drill the L-bracket into the top of the shelf:
see?
my genius father decided we should build a shelf between the two ikea shelves instead of buying one. i loved the idea, so we bought a plain 4-foot shelf at lowe's and two smaller boards to build our shelf with. we drilled two across, horizontally, then placed the white shelf on top and screwed it in as well. perfect!
my problem was that jordan's record player was 13 inches, and extended out further than the ikea shelves would go, so i needed something deeper that could hold it. the new shelf does the trick perfectly! we also drilled two holes on either side of the shelf for cords to go through, and mounted the tv on the wall!
ta-da!
notice we (dad) removed the light fixture, and i put these flat white plates up to cover the holes. easier than painting the entire ceiling, for now.
view from the sofa:
i also made a little skirt for the front of the shelf with left-over burlap from my curtain project. it was the perfect size. all i did was hem the two ends under, and adhere velcro to the shelf/skirt to attach it. it hides the record player speakers and the comcast box. :)
obviously, we have a LOT more storage now. i'm sure i'll tweak around the items on the shelves, and i want to install bookshelf lights at the tops of the shelves for extra lighting. i was considering hanging a pendant light of some sort above the tv - what do you think? i'm still thinking on this one.
i found some knick-knacks like these perfectly-tarnished cups at the thrift store, and got those dvd storage containers at ikea.
anyway, i'm realllllly happy with my new bookshelves, and here's my shout-out to my sweet dad for helping me do all this!