You’ve seen pictures of my upstairs hallway before, but you may not have noticed the tiny nook right before the guest room on the left hand side.

Yeah, that’s about all it’s good for- a vase with random twigs in it. I had been thinking about putting in some shelves for awhile, but finally last weekend the hubs and I tackled this project.

We picked up these items from Home Depot:

  • (2) 1x8x12s
  • (2) 8ft pieces of fluted trim (about 2.5″ wide)
  • (2) 1x2x8s (furring strips)
  • 2.5″ finishing nails
  • 2.5″ screws

We had wood putty, wood glue, primer, and white semi-gloss paint on hand. My hubs did all the cutting and installing (I hate being precise, and he’s great at it). He installed 1x2s on either side of the nook where I wanted the shelves. They are about 12″ apart and we decided on 6 total.  The 1x8s were the perfect width for the space, so all we (he) had to do was to cut them to length. I measured each spot separately because we weren’t sure the walls were completely square (always a good idea, especially in older homes).

After all the shelves were cut, Mike cut pieces of trim to go along the front of each one. I really liked the idea of adding the trim 1) to hide the furring strips and 2) to give the space a more “built-in” feel. I used the finish nails and glue to attach the trim to the shelves, then tapped the nails in below the surface with a nail set and puttied over the hole.

I primed and painted all the finished shelves+trim, then popped them into place.

The fit was so snug and the width so narrow that we felt comfortable with not securing them in place.  I couldn’t wait to load them up with goodies, but I waited overnight while the paint dried completely.

I moved some of my books from the downstairs bookcase up here as well as those horse bookends I painted. Here’s the view from the stairs.

And from straight ahead…

I’m seriously IN LOVE. I’m absolutely thrilled with how they came out and so glad we added the trim. Now that little nook has a ton of storage and feels more like it was supposed to be there all along for this purpose.

Oh, and I get to hide my vampy chick lit up here and out of the more public living room bookshelf 🙂

14 Responses

  3. PamB

    That’s fabulous!!! And very finished-looking!! I congratulate you. I think it’s perfect and am inspired. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  10. Closet Remix

    […] shelf will be getting a piece of trim (I’m thinking the fluting I used on these built ins) to hide the supports. I still have to add the hardware back to the hutch (which is painted SW […]

    Reply

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