Turning Bookcases Into Built-Ins & Painting Them: a house log

I know what you are thinking. Do The house team want to marry built-ins? The answer is yes. What can I say, we are simply suckers for them (function + form = jackpot) so it was no surprise that Hilary’s project of turning low-cost Craigslist bookcases into an architectural feature had me at “Hey there.” It was simply such a smart use of space and such a wise way to adapt something pre-made (and affordable) to work for the room. Here is her letter:

Hey there John + Sherry! My husband and I moved into our little cape cod in Jersey simply over a year ago. In the first year we tore out the old flooring, laid all new wood floors, and fully gutted and renovated our kitchen. After we checked the biggest projects off of our To Do list we were able to move onto more lively projects like adding plenty of storage and display space in our living room by means of two built-ins. After scouring Craigslist for months I at last found two perfectly ugly yet sturdy all-wood bookcases for only $100.

After I took out some outdated trim, sanded them down…

… and painted them in white (Benjamin Moore’s White Dove)…

… they truly popped against the navy blue walls that I painted to show through behind them (Behr’s December Eve). Then we simply wrapped up things off with trim that we painted to match. Adding crown molding and putting the doors back on was the final step. And filling them back up with things we enjoy – and stashing additional items in the bottom cabinets – was the icing on the cake.

There is still more trim work and paint touch-ups to be completed but I simply could not wait any longer to share.

I hope you will find them as excellent as we do! – Thanks, Hilary

Is that not an excellent idea? The royal-ish navy blue wall color that shows through from behind them is such a strong choice, the dark frames are cool, and most of all we simply enjoy that Hilary so smartly adapted old bookcases from Craigslist to earn all that display space (and storage!) against that formerly useless wall. You can see more about how these built-ins came to be on Hilary’s journal – and even tackle your own version with some old secondhand bookcases if you hunt some down. And beyond simply the shelves themselves, I am truly digging the items on them. Methinks I need to find myself a vintage fan…