Our Living Room Built-ins

I can't tell you how many times I've cropped all these (tv, internet, phone) wires out of pictures.  Too many times to count!  We've had plans to build shelves around our fireplace to cover up the wires and add more character to our living room forever.  But for one reason or another, they just hadn't taken priority in our budget.  Then about a month ago my husband and I were on a date at Home Depot, pricing out and day dreaming about a future kitchen update (are we the only ones who go on dates like that???).

As we were about to leave, the topic of "the built-ins" came up again and we decided that we'd rather forgo any other Christmas presents and make these our Christmas present for each other. 

Sometimes it's really hard to wait for the things we want.  We've talked about doing these built ins for FOUR years!  But the wait was worth it.  We always sleep better knowing we paid cash and didn't go into debt for home improvement projects.

These are the plans that my husband drew up.

This is stage one of the right side of the built ins.  We used backer-board for the back of the shelves to cut costs, but the rest of the shelves are made from plywood.

This is stage two with mdf molding around all the edges. 

Now there are two!!!  So exciting!!!  They weren't bolted to the wall yet, but getting some white paint on them was getting us closer to the finished line.

Getting closer!  In this picture, they're bolted to the wall and we're just working on some touch up paint and sanding.

And done!  We added some crown molding around the tops of the built ins and all around our living room/dining room to tie the shelves into the room.  You may notice a slight gap between the crown molding and the ceiling.  That was actually done on purpose because we want to install a diy plank ceiling at some point in the near future.  This way those thin planks can just slide seamlessly under the molding without any rough edges.

I couldn't wait to decorate the shelves once they were finished.  But I soon realized how hard that is!  I just used things around the house I already had.  But I still want to play around with them a bit and maybe collect some new things to put on them, over time. 

I'm just sooo glad we don't have those unsightly wires hanging around any more.  Now they're nicely tucked inside those lower cupboards on the shelf.