Girls’ Room: Progress on the Built-In Bookshelves

Sometimes it’s all in the little details… adding the last few touches to these built-in bookcases has taken a little bit of time but they look SO clean and beautiful right now! As if they had come built into the original architecture of the house rather than an addition that we’ve added.

It’s hard to tell in these before and after photos (especially when looking at them on a monitor), but the sanding, painting and caulking touch ups make all of the difference up close.

Here’s a snapshot at what we need to finish before these bookcases are ‘finished’.

Starting from the top: shelf inserts need to be installed, caulking of all cracks and crevices, drawer hardware and molding where the bookshelves meet the wall and windows.

First up after installation was a heavy amount of finish sanding. My mom and I knocked this out in an afternoon, but it’s a messy process! The finished result (after two sanding blocks worth of buffing), were smooth, perfect cabinets.

Then the cabinets were repainted.

The seams in the drawer and cabinetry faces are hard to see… but if you really want that polished look a dose of caulking around all edging is the cherry on top.

Looking good!!

And now for the hardware. I don’t have any shots of my Dad installing the hardware, but he helped us line up all of the pulls and drilled through the cabinet drawers to install each. I ordered knobs and campaign-style pulls from the same source as our kitchen hardware, I LOVE how it looks.

We are getting there! Still need to add shelving inserts and the molding where the cabinetry meets the walls and windows. And the trim at the ceiling. Then these guys are finished.

Can’t wait to fill up those shelves and to finally have settled on window seat and window covering fabrics. Be back soon…

PS More nursery makeover posts can be found right here if you want to start from the beginning! And here’s what the first nursery looked like.